Sage grouse 'pause button' bills

Congressional Republicans from four Rocky Mountain states rallied behind legislation introduced May 22 that would delay a court-ordered decision on whether the Greater Sage Grouse should be listed as an endangered species for 10 years.

Bills proposed by Michael B. Enzi (Wyo.) in the Senate and Cory Gardner (Colo.) in the House would require state and local governments work with ranchers, oil and gas producers, and other stakeholders to develop conservation management plans to meet the bird's unique needs.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has until Sept. 30, 2015, to issue a decision under a deadline a federal court imposed to settle a lawsuit brought by environmental organizations—one of about 1,500 such "sue-and-settlement" agreements now in force.

The bills would, as then-US Interior Sec. Ken Salazar said in 2010 when he suspended Gulf of Mexico oil and gas operations following the Macondo deepwater well accident, "hit the pause button."

Enzi said, "Wyoming has worked tirelessly with stakeholders over many years to protect the sage grouse. These efforts have already proven that conservation plans created by states, and local groups, work better to protect habitat and increase sage grouse population than top-down federal plan."

Gardner added, "States have proven that they are more than capable of working in tandem with the federal government to preserve wildlife. By encouraging conservation plans at the state level, those most familiar with the local habitats and economies will be directly involved throughout the species management process."

'A perfect example'

Rep. Rob Bishop (Utah), who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee's Public Lands and Environmental Regulation Subcommittee, called the matter "a perfect example of something that can, and should, be managed by the states in partnership with the US Departments of the Interior and Agriculture."

Sen. John A. Barrasso (Wyo.) and Reps. Steve Daines (Mont.), Cynthia M. Lummis (Wyo.), and Scott Tipton (Colo.) also backed the bills. So did the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

"IPAA supports increased flexibility and equipping states to tailor regulations to their own unique set of characteristics," IPAA Pres. Barry Russell told Gardner in a May 22 letter. "This legislation is a balance between conservation of the species and responsible economic development."

A US Bureau of Land Management spokesman, meanwhile, said that DOI agency, which has been working with stakeholders in the 11 affected states, hopes to complete environmental impact statements covering the sage grouse late this summer.

"FWS has taken a pretty remarkable step with its Conservation Objective Team report, which showed where BLM will have to hit its ball if it expects it to be a home run," the spokesman told OGJ on May 27.