Congress

 

House

 

GOP Rep Urges Biden Official To Visit Region Where Admin Is Seeking To Curb Drilling To ‘Save A Lizard’ — “Republican Rep. August Pfluger of Texas has requested that members of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) come to Texas to hold a hearing about a decision that could drastically impact U.S. energy production, according to a letter obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation. Pfluger requested that the agency send a delegation to Texas’ Permian Basin to hold a public hearing on the agency’s proposal to list the dunes sagebrush lizard as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), according to a letter he sent Wednesday to USFWS Director Martha Williams. The Permian Basin is a critical region for U.S. oil and gas production, and listing the species under the ESA could significantly hamper energy production in the region and cost many locals their jobs, the letter states. ‘On the campaign trail, President Biden promised to kill the fossil fuel industry, and that’s about the only promise we can count on him keeping,’ Pfluger told the DCNF. ‘His latest tactic—listing the dunes sagebrush lizard as an endangered species so he can shut down drilling in the Permian—is just the latest in a string of assaults on the Permian Basin and our way of life. The Biden administration’s director in charge of listing this lizard has not visited the Permian Basin or provided me with the scientific evidence to back up their claims that the lizard is in fact endangered.’” [The Daily Caller, 8/31/23 (-)]

 

 

Department of the Interior (DOI)

 

Bureau of Land Management (BLM)

 

National ‘Blueprint’ Embraces More Outdoor Recreation On Public Lands — “With COVID-19 in full swing in 2020, people wanted to breathe fresh air and get away from the crowds. Restaurants, movie theaters and concert venues were all off limits, so other opportunities were embraced. Enter outdoor recreation. From 2020 to 2021, Utah’s outdoor recreation economy grew by 27.3%, according to a U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis. Additionally, that growth fueled $6.1 billion in value-added dollars for the state’s economy, accounting for 2.7% of its gross domestic product and supporting nearly 67,000 jobs. The number of people wanting to have fun outside has continued to increase, not only in Utah but across the country. To that end, the Bureau of Land Management Thursday announced a new initiative intended to guide the land agency as it ramps up its programs, infrastructure and partnerships to better meet the growing demand of outdoor recreation.” [The Journal, 8/31/23 (+)]

 

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM)

 

$5.6 Million Bid For One Offshore Location Marks Modest Start For Gulf Of Mexico Wind Energy — “In a first-of-its kind auction for the Gulf of Mexico, a company bid $5.6 million Tuesday to lease federal waters off the Louisiana coast for wind energy generation. It was a modest start for wind energy in the Gulf, which lags the Northeast in offshore wind power development. Only one of three available tracts received bids. And only two companies bid. The winning bidder was RWE Offshore US. The Biden administration said the tract covers more than 102,000 acres (41,200 hectares) with the potential for generation of 1.24 gigawatts, enough wind power to supply 435,000 homes. Analysts cited a variety of factors behind the current, relatively low interest in the lease sale, including inflation and challenges specific to the area such as lower wind speeds and the need for designs that consider hurricane threats. Washington-based research group Clearview Energy Partners said in a Tuesday analysis that Gulf states’ governments lack the needed offshore wind targets or mandates for renewable energy that could encourage more wind development.” [PBS, 8/30/23 (=)]

 

Interior’s First Gulf Of Mexico Wind Lease Sale Sees Limited Interest — “The Interior Department’s first-ever offshore wind auction in the Gulf of Mexico sold just one of three lease areas offered, a result that experts say fell ‘short of expectations’ and highlights the need for greater government support to allow the sector to develop there as it is starting to do on the East Coast. ‘While today’s auction fell short of expectations, it is nonetheless a critical step for the energy transition on the Gulf Coast,’ the American Clean Power Association (ACP) writes in a press release reacting to the Aug. 29 sale. The top bid for the 102,480-acre tract offshore Lake Charles, LA, went to a subsidiary of the German electricity company RWE. It has the potential to generate around 1.24 gigawatts (GW) of wind energy capacity, powering around 435,400 homes with renewable energy, Interior writes in an Aug. 29 press release. The company will pay $5.6 million for the lease. The Lake Charles area generated one additional bidder, while two other areas offshore Galveston, TX, did not attract any bids. ‘Today’s lease sale represents an important milestone for the Gulf of Mexico region -- and for our nation -- to transition to a clean energy future,’ said Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Director Elizabeth Klein in the release.” [Inside EPA, 8/30/23 (=)]

 

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS)

 

US Government Is Funding Kills Of Endangered Animals, Activists Say — “The US federal government has been accused of simultaneously paying to protect endangered species while funding state-organized hunts of large, endangered predators, like gray wolves and grizzly bears, that increase the likelihood of their extinction. A coalition of more than 35 animal welfare and Indigenous groups in late 2021 formally petitioned the US Department of the Interior to develop rules to withhold money from state agencies that fund the ‘slaughters’. But the department has not responded to the petition, the groups allege. The coalition renewed their call in the wake of a June Alaska department of fish and game operation in which hunters gunned down 94 brown bears, five black bears and five wolves from helicopters. In a 23 August 2023 letter to Deb Haaland, the department of interior secretary, the coalition wrote that the ‘extinction crisis is not an abstraction; it is a clear and present danger and an impending catastrophe’. It added: ‘The [department of the interior] is tasked with preventing extinctions, using sound science when making decisions to prevent those extinctions, and with being accountable to the entire public – not funding controversial predator-control actions for the purported benefit of a few.’” [The Guardian, 8/31/23 (-)]

 

 

Department of Agriculture (USDA)

 

U.S. Forest Service (USFS)

 

AP | Judge: Trump-Era Rule Change Allowing The Logging Of Old-Growth Forests Violates Laws — “A federal judge has found that a Trump-era rule change that allowed for the logging of old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest violates several laws. U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Hallman on Thursday found that the U.S. Forest Service violated the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Forest Management Act and the Endangered Species Act when it amended a protection that had been in place since 1994. The findings came in response to a lawsuit filed by multiple environmental groups over the change. Hallman recommended that the Forest Service’s environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact should be vacated and that the agency should be required to prepare a full environmental impact statement related to the change. ‘The highly uncertain effects of this project, when considered in light of its massive scope and setting, raise substantial questions about whether this project will have a significant effect on the environment,’ Hallman wrote.” [NPR, 8/31/23 (=)]

 

Forest Service Should Redo Tree Protections, Judge Says — “The U.S. Forest Service violated multiple environmental laws when it approved logging large-diameter trees in the Pacific Northwest and the new timber standards should be set aside until the agency completes a thorough effects analysis, an Oregon federal magistrate judge recommended Thursday. Judge Andrew Hallman sided with conservation groups challenging the service’s decision to approve the logging, finding the huge breadth and unknown impacts of the services’ elimination of a prohibition to felling trees with a trunk diameter of at least 21-inches merited in-depth environmental review. The agency’s alteration of the so-called Eastside Screen applied to almost 8 million acres across six national forests in eastern Oregon and Washington, and was approved without appropriate public participation or an accounting of the potential impact on endangered species, Judge Hallman said in a 37-page report and recommendation. ‘The highly uncertain effects of this project, when considered in light of its massive scope and setting, raise substantial questions about whether this project will have a significant effect’ under the National Environmental Policy Act, the judge said.” [Law360, 8/31/23 (=)]

 

 

States & Local

 

Alaska

 

Willow Backers Urge Judge To Reject Enviros' Challenges — “ConocoPhillips and supporters of its Willow project told an Alaska federal judge there’s no reason for conservation groups to succeed in their attempts to overturn Bureau of Land Management approvals for the massive arctic oil and gas development. In a string of separate filings on Wednesday, ConocoPhillips, the state of Alaska, the North Slope Borough and two Alaska Native corporations all took turns defending BLM’s challenged reviews and approvals for Willow and explaining why the project should proceed. Willow will more than triple National Petroleum Reserve production through the development of nearly 600 million barrels of oil, they said, advancing domestic energy goals, providing a critical economic boost for residents of a remote area and adequately safeguarding subsistence land uses and the environment. ‘Plaintiffs believe that all oil and gas should be kept in the ground, and therefore that Willow cannot be constructed,’ ConocoPhillips said in its response to conservation groups’ motions for summary judgment.” [Law360, 8/31/23 (=)]

 

Nevada

 

What’s The Most Sustainable Way To Mine The Largest Known Lithium Deposit In The World? — “At first glance, the McDermitt Caldera might feel like the edge of the Earth. This oblong maze of rocky vales straddles the arid Nevada-Oregon borderlands, in one of the least densely populated parts of North America. But the future of the modern world depends on the future of places like the McDermitt Caldera, which has the potential to be the largest known source of lithium on the planet. Where today’s world runs on hydrocarbons, tomorrow’s may very well rely on the element for an expanding offering of lithium-ion batteries. The flaky silver metal is a necessity for these batteries that we already use, and which we’ll likely use in far greater numbers to support mobile phones, electric cars, and large electric grids. Which is why it matters a ton where we get our lithium from. A new study, published in the journal Science Advances today, suggests that McDermitt Caldera contains even more lithium than previously thought and outlines how the yet-to-be-discovered stores could be extracted. But these results are unlikely to ease the criticisms about the environmental costs of mining the substance.” [Popular Science, 8/30/23 (=)]

 

Texas

 

U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service Considers Protecting West Texas Lizard, Worrying Oil And Gas Industry — “The roads outside of Monahans are busy as semi trucks pull in and out of sand mines. Over the years, this area, known for its dunes, has become busy. First it was the rush to the Permian Basin to frack oil over a decade ago and then, more recently, mines began to dig up sand needed for drilling. But as these industries have thrived, the small dunes sagebrush lizard has become harder to find — pushing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to propose designating it as an endangered species. According to Lee Fitzgerald, a biologist with Texas A&M University, protections for the lizard have been a long time coming. Fitzgerald has spent the last few decades researching the lizard and has seen their numbers plummet in that time. ‘Just before our eyes we saw the lizards disappearing,’ he said. The approximately two-inch lizard makes its home in the dunes spread out over West Texas and New Mexico. It’s what is known as a habitat specialist, meaning it needs the specific environment created by the small shinnery oak trees covering dunes across the Permian Basin.” [Texas Public Radio, 8/31/23 (=)]

 

 

 

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