Weekly Newsletter |June 7, 2019

Issues

DOJ defends sage-grouse plan revisions. The Trump administration fully complied with environmental laws in revising Obama-era greater sage grouse conservation plans and should be allowed to continue implementing them, government attorneys assert in new court filings defending the changes.

In the 61-page motion, filed last Friday with the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho, the Justice Department (DOJ) attorneys lay out the most detailed response to date from the Trump administration to critics who have targeted the bipartisan revisions.

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) conducted six separate environmental impact statements (EIS) analyzing the revisions in each of the seven states: California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming. BLM evaluated “a reasonable range of alternatives” in the EIS and took the requisite “hard look at the impacts” of the revisions, the motion says.

The motion also notes that BLM’s analysis “fully complied with NEPA,” and as a result, the environmental coalition’s challenge is “not likely to succeed on the merits of their claims.”

Attorneys for the environmental groups are asking the court to step in because BLM “is now moving rapidly to implement the weakened sage-grouse plans through site-specific decisions that threaten irreparable harm to sage-grouse populations and habitat.”

They requested that the court issue the injunction by June 15.

Interior, BLM face pushback on revisions to Obama-era sage-grouse plan. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) has accused the Department of Interior (DOI) of violating federal regulations by finalizing revisions to Obama-era greater sage-grouse conservation plans.

At issue are a series of administrative protests filed mostly by conservation groups opposed to the changes. Those protests were reviewed and dismissed by the “Office of the BLM Director,” allowing the plans to be finalized in six records of decision issued in March. But PEER says in the letter to DOI Secretary David Bernhardt that those decisions violate the federal code of regulations, as well as the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, because BLM did not have a permanent, or even an acting, director in place.

Instead, Brian Steed, BLM’s deputy director of policy and programs, was designated by then-Secretary Ryan Zinke as “exercising authority of the director.” PEER claims that only a permanent or acting bureau director is authorized to decide administrative protests, meaning the revised plans were never legally approved and cannot be implemented.

Molly Block, an Interior spokeswoman, strongly rejected those claims, saying in an email that “PEER’s allegations are factually and legally wrong.” She also noted that the protest responses were signed by Kristin Bail, BLM’s assistant director for renewable resources and planning, not Steed.

What’s more, Block added, “There is no law or regulation that requires a decision on protests to be made by a Senate-confirmed BLM Director.” Regardless, she wrote, the protest resolutions were “consistent with BLM’s delegation of authority to resolve such protests to both the Deputy Director and the Assistant Director.”

In the News

Judge blocks Hammonds’ grazing rights restored by Trump. E&E News, Sub req’d. A battle is brewing over a push by House Democrats to drop several GOP provisions from the Interior-EPA spending bill, a partisan move that could ultimately allow new regulation of emissions, protect an endangered bird and end some favorable treatment for Alaska. The House Appropriations Committee this week passed a $37.3 billion measure for EPA, the Interior Department and related agencies. Largely overlooked was the decision by Democrats to drop nine environmental and land management riders from the bill that are currently federal law. Those provisions, some of which have been included in spending measures for several years, need to be renewed annually. Democrats have touted their spending bills as avoiding policy matters, but they have been less vocal about removing riders that could have major consequences.

Enviros sue for salamanders’ habitat. E&E News, Sub req’d. An environmental group today sued the Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to designate critical habitat for the Georgetown salamander and Salado salamander, which are both protected under the Endangered Species Act. In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Center for Biological Diversity asserted the federal agency has badly missed ESA deadlines. “Pollution and sprawl are destroying the springs these salamanders need to survive, so federal officials have to safeguard their habitat before it’s too late,” Elise Bennett, a center attorney, said in a statement. The lawsuit marks the latest twist in the salamanders’ somewhat meandering tale. The Georgetown salamander is known for three pairs of bright-red gills on each side behind the jaws, among other traits.

Reactions to condor and gray wolf plans run hot and cold. E&E News, Sub req’d. Fish and Wildlife Service plans for two very distinctive species, the gray wolf and the California condor, are prompting two very different reactions. While broad but not unanimous applause has greeted a FWS proposal to transplant the California condor to parts of the Pacific Northwest, a proposal to remove the gray wolf’s Endangered Species Act protections has provoked sharp debate that’s only getting hotter. In a letter yesterday, 34 House members voiced their “strong support” for the proposed ESA delisting of the gray wolf’s population in the Lower 48 states. “We cannot let scientific findings fall victim to politically motivated attacks,” the lawmakers wrote. “As the proposed rule demonstrates, the gray wolf is a success story of the ESA.”

Fish, wildlife and parks nominee wins bipartisan praise. E&E News, Sub req’d. Wyoming resident Robert Wallace appears poised for a friction-free confirmation as the Interior Department’s assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks, following the second of his two appearances in front of a Senate panel. During yesterday morning’s approximately 65-minute Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, Wallace effortlessly fielded a mix of policy questions, home-state invitations and plaudits. “You know all the secrets,” Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, the committee’s senior Democrat, told Wallace, adding that “I truly believe you’re going to be a bipartisan builder [and] bring us all together.” Wallace, in turn, echoed the bipartisan refrain, saying that “people seldom win by winning everything, and it’s the bipartisan solutions that are the lasting ones.” The hearing yesterday matched a similarly smooth session Tuesday before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (Greenwire, June 4).

Greens sue Interior over ‘urgently needed ESA protections.’ E&E News, Sub req’d. Environmental groups today filed a federal lawsuit against the Interior Department in an effort to prompt protection for eight “highly imperiled species” under the Endangered Species Act. The Fish and Wildlife Service “has found that all of the species warrant protection” under the ESA, but “has refused to afford them the protections the ESA mandates” until it is able to complete work on other “higher priority species,” according to the 15-page complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. But Fish and Wildlife “is not making expeditious progress in listing other species,” the complaint says, because it is “listing fewer species under the Trump administration than the Obama administration was able to accomplish with an equivalent level of resources, and the rate of listing has now plummeted to the lowest level in decades.”

Senate confirms Susan Combs in bipartisan vote. E&E News, Sub req’d. After waiting 695 days, Susan Combs is now officially the Interior Department’s assistant secretary for policy, management and budget. The Senate this afternoon confirmed the former Texas comptroller and agriculture commissioner to the post in a 57-36 bipartisan vote. The Democrats voting for her were former Energy and Natural Resources ranking member Maria Cantwell of Washington, current ENR ranking member Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Sens. Doug Jones of Alabama and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with the Democrats, also voted for Combs. President Trump first nominated Combs in July 2017, but various senators blocked a floor vote on her through holds. He renominated her two more times.