Issues
In Wyoming, energy producers and conservationists look to tackle mitigation. The future of mitigation is playing out in Wyoming, as energy companies and conservationists look for opportunities to collaborate while the federal government finalizes its mitigation policy. As reported in the Casper Star Tribune this week, industry representatives believe proper planning, such as avoiding sensitive habitat, can prevent the need for off-site mitigation. “It’s going to be both a hurdle and also potentially an opportunity and that is going to depend how they are going to apply it,” said Paul Ulrich, regulatory director at Jonah Energy. “There is an opportunity to support conservation and at the same time pave the way for development and business in Wyoming,” said Christine Anderson, whose firm owns a 600,000-acre ranch that serves as Wyoming’s first approved mitigation site.
The Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) has also submitted comments to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in an effort to improve the proposed mitigation policy, requesting that the Service withdraw their proposed changes to the rule. IPAA argued that the Service defined its authority so broadly that it would allow the agency to require mitigation of any and all habitat impacts and give the Service the power to “veto” development projects. IPAA also disagreed with a provision requiring mitigation to be implemented before development begins, regardless of whether the project ever negatively impacts the environment.
Endangered species provisions delay energy bill. The bipartisan energy bill, passed by a vote of 85-12 in the Senate in April, is facing new headwinds over amendments related to the Endangered Species Act. The amendments would override federal protections for the Wyoming and Great Lakes populations of the gray wolf and would also shift more water to California farmers and cut water flow to the endangered delta smelt. The Associated Press reports that 40 lawmakers have been named to serve on a joint House-Senate committee to negotiate a final agreement; the White House has threatened to veto the current bill.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said the bill “modernizes our energy infrastructure so we can address urgent priorities for the country, from tackling California’s drought crisis to healing our forests in order to prevent wildfires.” Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), the Senate bill’s co-sponsor, said that a House-Senate “conference that starts with that as the baseline is not going to be a productive effort.” Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), the other co-sponsor of the energy bill, signaled on Tuesday that she is open to “different ways” of getting a conference together that does not involve taking up the House-passed version.
Sage grouse blocks new wind energy project. A wind energy project in Oregon was recently cancelled following a ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that ruled the Bureau of Land Management did not properly address the impact of the project on the winter population of the Greater sage-grouse. The project, based in Harney County, would have developed up to 69 wind turbines on 10,500 acres of private land and a transmission line in the county.
The project was challenged by the Oregon Natural Desert Association and the Audubon Society of Portland. Judge Steve Grasty, a top official in the county, called the decision “One more lost opportunity for our community,” telling the Statesman Journal that land managers should be given deference over the courts for these decisions.
In the News
Moose may go on endangered species list. Associated Press. Federal officials said Thursday they will consider extending protections under the Endangered Species Act to moose in four upper Midwestern states, including Minnesota, where the hulking symbol of its northern woodlands has suffered a steep population decline in the past decade. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said a petition submitted last year by two environmental groups had provided “substantial scientific or commercial information” that might justify designating the region’s moose as endangered or threatened.
Developers face ‘new reality’ of protests, longer reviews. E&E News (sub req’d). Pipeline developers are struggling with longer approval times as environmentalists throw up more regulatory and legal roadblocks as part of a nationwide movement to frustrate and ultimately halt fossil fuels projects, said a top industry executive. The amount of time it takes companies to get a new gas project approved and operational — from the proposal phase to steel in the ground — has grown from three years to four, Donald Santa, CEO of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, said during an interview this week. Influential environmental groups like the Sierra Club are also encouraging economists, pipeline safety experts, air quality monitors and biologists to pose new questions about air and water quality, endangered species, deforestation, emissions and climate change during FERC permitting.
This is the Obama administration’s new plan to stop devastating ocean noise pollution. Washington Post. Ocean noise can affect marine animals in a variety of ways — some of which scientists are only beginning to understand. Research has suggested, for instance, that noise from ships can decrease the ability of endangered right whales to communicate with one another, or that noise from seismic surveying can change the behavior of blue whales. Now, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is helping to address these concerns with a new “strategy roadmap” — the first of its kind — for researching and managing ocean noise and its impact on marine life. The agency released the strategy in draft form last week and will leave it open for public comments through July.
A biologist works to reconcile bats and wind energy. Wall Street Journal. His fascination with bats took on a professional urgency several years ago when researchers found that swarms of migrating bats were flying headlong into wind turbines across the Eastern U.S., dying by the thousands. Scientists are trying to figure out exactly why. Some theorize bats are attracted to the turbines’ height, mistaking them for tall trees, or that the moving blades confuse the bats’ biological sonar. Mr. Hayes and other biologists in the wind-power industry are developing methods for minimizing bat and bird fatalities. His team is working with organizations including Bat Conservation International and Bats and Wind Energy Cooperative testing acoustic deterrents, idling turbines at night during the fall migration season, and adjusting the angle of the turbine blades, called feathering.
Feds move to protect endangered Atlantic sturgeon in Delaware River. NJ Spotlight. The federal government is taking action to protect the endangered Atlantic sturgeon, a species that once flourished in the Delaware Estuary, but whose population has dwindled to a few hundred. The National Marine Fisheries Service wants to designate critical habitats in 16 rivers, including the Delaware, to protect areas that are deemed crucial to supporting the fish population. The environmental community long has been worried about the declining population of the Atlantic Sturgeon in the Delaware, arguing it is endangered because of the loss of habitat and fish kills from power plants and refineries along the river.
Bat killings by wind energy turbines continue. Scientific American (Magazine). More will die at wind turbines elsewhere in the U.S. and Canada in the forests and fields of the Midwest and the windy prairies of the Great Plains. Much of this slaughter—the greatest threat to animals that are a vital link in our ecosystem—was supposed to end last year. In 2015, with great fanfare, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), a trade group, announced voluntary guidelines to halt turbines at low wind speeds, when bats are most active, which would save lives. Conservationists praised the move. But some scientists say this promise falls short.
Environmental bureaucrats need more lessons in the rule of law. Townhall (Column). Pacific Legal Foundation has now petitioned the Supreme Court to hear a case that asks whether decisions to regulate private lands as critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act can be challenged in court. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service contends that such decisions cannot be challenged because the agency has unfettered discretion to include or exclude areas from its regulatory reach. The case concerns designation of nearly 12,000 square miles of habitat on the west coast for the North American green sturgeon. The Endangered Species Act requires the agency to consider economic impacts before designating habitat, and allows areas to be excluded where costs exceed the benefits of designation. Yet the bureaucrats refused to even consider excluding many areas where the costs of designation were disproportionately high.
Lawsuit launched over Forest Service’s failure to protect rare California frogs, toads from grazing. Center for Biological Diversity (Press Release). The Center for Biological Diversity today filed a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Forest Service for authorizing livestock grazing on the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest without considering the potential impacts to federally protected Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs and Yosemite toads. Livestock grazing and other activities on Forest Service lands have contributed to the declines of both amphibians. But before approving grazing on a series of allotments earlier this year on the Humboldt-Toiyabe, the Forest Service did not consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service to ensure that livestock grazing would not jeopardize the survival of the protected frogs and toads, in violation of the Endangered Species Act.
