American Oil and Gas Reporter - December 2016 - 14

IndustryDigest
Federal Court Affirms
Using Climate Models
In ESA Determinations
ANCHORAGE, AK.-A federal court
has ruled Washington can use climate
models that predict future habitat loss as
a reason to list a species as threatened
under the Endangered Species Act.
The Alaska Oil & Gas Association
led a legal protest against the National

Marine Fisheries Service's 2012 listing
decision that declared the Beringia
distinct population segment of the
Pacific bearded seal as threatened,
based on projections it faced a
significant extinction threat by 2090
because of significant Arctic habitat
changes.
According to U.S. District Judge
Ralph Beistline's 2014 ruling in Alaska
Oil & Gas Association v. Pritzker, the

Harold Hamm Selected Chief Roughneck
SEA ISLAND, GA.-Harold G.
Hamm, chairman and chief executive
officer of Continental Resources Inc.,
has been named the 2016 Chief
Roughneck by U. S. Steel Tubular
Products and the Independent
Petroleum Association of America.
The award was presented to Hamm
during IPAA's annual meeting on Nov.
11 by U.S. Steel Senior Vice President
for Tubular Business David Rintoul,
who called Hamm "a tireless advocate
for America's energy independence."
Hamm, Rintoul said, "is a fighter,
not only for our industry and his
company, but also for the success of
others. He personally devotes his time
and resources to championing a healthy
and secure future for all Americans."
According to the company website,
Hamm established Continental
Resources in 1967 at the age of 21, and
built the grass-roots startup into a top

10 U.S. producer.
Hamm co-founded and serves as
chairman of the Domestic Energy
Producers Alliance, which led the
successful charge to lift America's 40year-old ban on exporting U.S. crude in
2015. He also is a past-chairman and
member of the board of the Oklahoma
Independent Petroleum Association, is
a founding board member of the
Oklahoma Energy Resources Board,
and is a past-president of the National
Stripper Well Association.
Outside of the oil and gas industry,
Hamm helped establish the Harold
Hamm Diabetes Center at the
University of Oklahoma Health
Sciences Center, and established the
Harold Hamm International Prize for
Biomedical Research in Diabetes, a
$250,000 biennial award celebrating
scientific achievements in the fight
against diabetes.
In 2012, Hamm
helped establish the
Harold Hamm School of
Geology and Geological
Engineering at the
University of North
Dakota, and has funded
numerous education
initiatives around the
country, including college
scholarships, classroom
technology, and school
capital campaigns.
The Chief
Roughneck Award® is a
lifetime achievement
recognition presented
annually since 1955 to
David Rintoul (left), U.S. Steel senior vice president-tubular honor an individual
business, and Harold Hamm, chairman and chief executive whose accomplishments
officer of Continental Resources, pause with the bust and
and character represent
traditional hard hat signifying Hamm's selection as the
2016 Chief Roughneck by U.S. Steel Tubular Products and the highest ideals of the
oil and gas industry. ❒
the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

14 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

agency failed to provide sufficient
evidence of extinction, saying "an
unknown, unquantifiable population
reduction, which is not expected to
occur until nearly 100 years in the
future, is too remote and speculative to
support a listing as threatened."
On Oct. 24, however, the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the 9th Circuit reversed
Beistline's decision. It held under
NMFS's robust rule-making process,
listing the seal as threatened was not
arbitrary or capricious. The appeals
court added that the agency's
administrative record demonstrated it
provided a reasonable and evidencebased justification for its sea-ice
projections, fulfilling NMFS's ESA
obligations.
"We are disappointed with the
result, and obviously disagree with the
reasoning," says Kara Moriarty,
AOGA's president and chief executive
officer.
Moriarty contends the law affirms
Beistline's decision, and that the 9th
Circuit's approach fails to require
federal agencies to make any scientific
demonstrations that a species qualifies
as threatened or endangered under ESA.
The appeals court ignored the fact that
NMFS failed to provide any scientific
study that verified population numbers,
she points out.
A National Law Review article
downplays the ruling's precedential
significance, saying the opinion doesn't
endorse using an 85-year modeling
period for all ESA listing decisions, and
there are no indications NMSF or the
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service intend to
adopt such long views. For the bearded
seal, NMSF found loss of sea ice was
the greatest threat to its survival, and
long-term modeling shows that, by
2100, global warming will totally
eliminate shallow-ocean sea ice
accumulations.
For species in the lower-48, the
article says, the relationship between
climate change and habitat conditions is
more complex, and other factors,
including human impacts on habitat, are
usually seen as greater threats to a
species. ❒

Coming In January
Special Report:
Outlook 2017
American Oil and Gas Reporter - December 2016

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