Aug. 19–WASHINGTON — The best way to protect the greater sage grouse while keeping drill bits turning in Western states is for environmentalists and oil companies to work together on safeguarding the bird’s habitat, conservationists said Monday.
Ten conservation groups made a plea for “collaboration and compromise” in a letter to the Western Energy Alliance, which recently launched an advertising campaign blaming environmental activists and lawyers for exploiting “bad science and the courts to stop responsible energy development.”
That is an “overgeneralization” of conservation-minded groups working to keep the bird off the endangered species list, said the letter-signers, including the Western Values Project, National Audubon Society, Natural Resources Defense Council and the Wilderness Society.
“Groups like ours are working diligently throughout the West, imploring all stakeholders to come to the table to achieve a workable range-wide plan that protects existing rights, allows for needed new development, promotes other compatible uses and commits to conservation protections sufficient to avoid the necessity of the greater sage grouse being federally listed,” they wrote. “We feel strongly that the best path forward to achieving this goal is to genuinely collaborate with interested stakeholders, even those we might not always agree with.”
The letter illustrates the deep rift developing among environmental advocates over how to best protect the bird, a chicken-like species now standing — and strutting — at the center of a dispute over whether it’s possible to preserve nature and foster oil development at the same time.
Some deep-green environmental groups insist nothing less than an Endangered Species Act listing will be sufficient to safeguard the bird, which has dwindled in number as drilling, wildfires and cattle encroach on its 200-million-acre habitat.
Under a settlement reached with the Center for Biological Diversity and WildEarth Guardians three years ago, the Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service has until 2018 to decide whether to list scores of species for protections under the Endangered Species Act. A decision on the greater sage grouse is due by September 2015, though legislation pending in Congress would extend that deadline by a decade.
The issue has become election-year fodder around the country, as officials in 11 states that are home to the grouse develop plans to preserve the bird’s habitat and possibly forestall listing it as endangered or threatened. Options include limiting grazing, drilling and other activities around its nesting sites.
Not in Texas
Although Texas is not one of the 11 states with sage grouse habitat, it is home to major energy companies whose activities in California, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and other states could be at risk if the bird is listed as endangered. The Western Energy Alliance has a roster of more than 400 companies, including Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Halliburton, Noble Energy and Pioneer Natural Resources.
So far, only Wyoming’s strategy — developed in consultation with the oil industry, agricultural interests, conservationists and various agencies — has won approval from the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Brian Rutledge, a vice president of the National Audubon Society, said protection plans like Wyoming’s stand a better shot at sustaining the grouse than an endangered species listing that puts the issue in the federal government’s hands.
“I’ve worked on the Endangered Species Act since its inception, and I’m totally committed to it,” Rutledge said. “But it’s best used as a warning; we need to get our job right. Once it’s listed, we’ve accepted defeat.”
Rutledge said the best option is “a reasonable compromise” that takes into account human and animal activity both, “leaving room for all to continue to exist wherever possible.”
Frustrated
“I’m frustrated with the industry folks who want to say, ‘There’s no problem, leave us alone, we’ve already done all we need to do,’ and I’m frustrated with the far ends of the conservation community who say, ‘Birds do better when there aren’t people there, so everybody pack up and leave.’ ”
The Western Values Project last month criticized “entrenched groups” that have “chosen to reject compromise and refuse to work with others to find solutions” on “one of the most important conservation issues facing the West.”
Oil leaders say if the sage grouse is listed as endangered, it could halt energy in some of the most productive states.
“Given the sizable range of the sage grouse’s habitat, a listing would be devastating,” said Jack Ekstrom, chairman of the Western Energy Alliance. “Vast energy resources would be off limits and jobs lost.”
A study issued by the group said existing conservation measures implemented by energy companies are effectively protecting the grouse while pulling oil and natural gas out of the ground.