Issues

Interior Department Announces Greater Sage-Grouse Conservation Plan. Last week, federal officials released final environmental reviews for proposed land use plans as a part of a comprehensive conservation effort to protect the greater sage-grouse and its habitat on public lands in the west. The plan lays out 14 Environmental Impact Statements to guide land use activities on Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service administered resources in 10 western states with sagebrush habitat, including minimizing new or additional surface disturbances, improving habitat conditions, and reducing the threat of rangeland fire.

While Interior Secretary Sally Jewell lauded the announcement as “an important foundation to save the disappearing sagebrush landscape of the American West,” other stakeholders have expressed concern over the plan’s limits on surface disturbance, particularly in Priority Habitat Management Areas identified as “strongholds” important to conservation of the grouse. According to the Interior, the plan seeks to reduce disturbances by “implementing surface disturbance caps on development, minimizing surface occupancy from energy development, and identifying buffer distances around leks.”

As Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) senior vice president of government relations Dan Naatz stated in The Hill, “These plans, with their significant new limitations on land use, appear to fly in the face of the meaningful conservation efforts already underway within the range states to protect this important species.” Naatz added in E&E News, “Interior must find a balance between thoughtful conservation and critical energy and economic development, but these plans appear to be wanting on both fronts.”

The Western Energy Alliance and the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources also voiced their concerns about the federal plan. “The state plans work,” Committee Chairman Rob Bishop of Utah said in a statement. “This proposal is only about controlling land, not saving the bird.” Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper also highlighted that while his administration is still reviewing the plan and is “cautiously optimistic” about the strategy, “federal agencies rely heavily on regulatory mandates, but Colorado has found that incentive-based approaches in combination with regulation are the most effective…A federal approach that is too rigid, including a listing of the bird, puts that cooperation at risk.”

IPAA Hosting Briefing on NLEB. Next week, the Independent Petroleum Association of America is hosting a congressional briefing on the northern long-eared bat and the interim 4(d) rule for the species. The interim rule went into place on May 4, and comments on the final rule are open until July 1, 2015. The briefing will focus on the impacts of the rule on the oil and natural gas industry, and will feature panelists from IPAA, the American Petroleum Institute, Beveridge and Diamond, and Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck law firm. For additional information please contact Smcdonald@ipaa.org.

White House Delisting Numbers Under Fire. According to a recent White House regulatory plan, the Obama administration plans to delist a record number of endangered and threatened species in upcoming weeks. As E&E News reports, the Fish and Wildlife Service has delisted 12 species during the Obama administration, more than any other administration since the ESA became law in 1973, and plans to delist an additional seven species in the upcoming months.  Over this same time, however, the Service has also “extended ESA protections to more species under Obama than any other president aside from President Clinton, whose administration listed more than 520 species.”

One concern surrounding the increased number of listings has been the use of sue-and-settle techniques by groups including WildEarth Guardians and Center for Biological Diversity to force ESA settlement decisions. As Independent Petroleum Association of America spokesman Neal Kirby highlighted, “Too many new species are being listed under the ESA for the wrong reasons. When it comes to true species conservation, we must utilize the best available science — not political activism — in an effort to balance species conservation and recovery with economic growth and development.”

FWS Initiates Review of Proposed Incidental Take of Migratory Birds. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced its intent to prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act related to incidental take for birds under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.  According to the notice of intent, the Service is considering a rulemaking to address how to approach regulating incidental take of migratory birds including:

  • Issuance of general incidental take authorizations for some types of hazards to birds associated with particular industry sectors;
  • Issuance of individual permits authorizing incidental take from particular projects or activities;
  • Development of memoranda of understanding with Federal agencies authorizing incidental take from those agencies’ operations and activities; and
  • Development of voluntary guidance for industry sectors regarding operational techniques or technologies that can avoid or minimize incidental take.

A 60-day public comment period is now open on the Environmental Impact Statement HERE.

In the News

Feds release sage grouse conservation plan. The Hill. Dan Naatz, the Independent Petroleum Association of America’s senior vice president of government relations, said that, “these plans, with their significant new limitations on land use, appear to fly in the face of the meaningful conservation efforts already underway within the range states to protect this important species.” He continued, “Interior must find a balance between thoughtful conservation and critical energy and economic development, but these plans appear to be wanting on both fronts.” NOTE: IPAA’s comments also featured in E&E News (sub req’d), Natural Gas Intelligence (sub req’d), and Washington Times.

U.S. floats conservation measures for threatened bull trout. Reuters. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed actions on Tuesday to bolster the bull trout, a native fish found in pristine, cold-water streams and some lakes in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. It is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in the mainland United States. Its overall range is thought to have decreased by as much as 60 percent by the time it was added in 1998 to the federal endangered and threatened species list, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The proposals could be a first step toward ending Endangered Species Act protections for the fish depending on progress achieved in buttressing the populations.

Oil Downturn Also Affects Lesser Prairie Chicken. My High Plains. The downturn in the oil and gas industry could also have a negative effect on the Lesser Prairie Chicken, according to Sean Kyle with the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. “When oil and gas prices are high it’s not bad for the Prairie Chicken,” said Kyle, whose agency works to preserve the chicken. Since May 12, 2014, when the chicken was listed as threatened by the  U.S. Fish and Wildlife, oil and gas companies have had to accommodate and avoid chicken habitat areas.

More projects may be delayed thanks to new restrictions designed to save endangered bat species. Crain’s Cleveland Business. New real estate developments present a seemingly endless array of challenges for developers before the first hole is dug and buildings ever get off the ground. In addition to restrictions related to the Indiana bat, the northern long eared bat (“NLEB”) was named a “threatened” species effective as of April 1. Unlike the Indiana bat, which does not exist in large numbers, until recently the NLEB has been abundant in Ohio. Due mostly to a disease with no known cure, however, the NLEB population has been decimated in recent years. The ‘threatened” designation will likely lead to similar, although perhaps more condensed, restrictions being placed on tree-clearing to protect the NLEB, but the final rules are still being developed.

Environmental review released on transmission line through Utah, 3 other states. KSL Utah. What could someday be the nation’s second-largest transmission line of its kind is nearing the end of a lengthy environmental review, including what route it will take through Utah and three other Western states. Daue said the BLM’s preferred alternative route for the project cuts across roadless lands in northwest Colorado and would have detrimental impacts to lands with wilderness characteristics, greater sage grouse habitat and prized big-game hunting areas. The sage grouse implications are especially critical given a potential listing of the bird under the Endangered Species Act this fall.

New BLM land management plan in the works. Herald and News. The agency’s new Resource Management Plan (RMP) is being developed for 2.5 million-acres of BLM land that stretches from Portland to Medford and fans out to Coos Bay and Klamath Falls. Levy said BLM is collaborating with agencies such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to ensure species protected under the Endangered Species Act are not impacted by changes to the plan.