American Oil and Gas Reporter - December 2022 - 16

IndustryDigest
Lesser Prairie Chicken
Listed Under ESA
WASHINGTON-Oil and natural
gas industry representatives are blasting
the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's
decision to classify the lesser prairie
chicken (LPC) under the federal
Endangered Species Act. USFWS
announced in mid-November its
decision to list two distinct population
segments (DPS) of the species, with the
LPC's Southern DPS receiving an
endangered classification, and the
Northern DPS being listed as threatened.
" USFWS' decision to list the LPC
is careless and irresponsible, " assesses
Permian Basin Petroleum Association
President Ben Shepperd. " This action
discards years of valuable progress
with voluntary programs that have
proven to be successful in conserving
the species. Many PBPA member
companies have a demonstrated record
of development and ongoing support of
successful habitat management and
conservation programs, typically in
partnership with the USFWS and state
fish and game agencies. "
According to USFWS, the Southern
DPS encompasses LPC populations in
eastern New Mexico and across the
southwest Texas Panhandle, where most
habitat is shinnery oak prairie. The
Northern DPS encompasses LPC
populations in southeastern Colorado,
south-central and western Kansas,
western Oklahoma and the northeastern
Texas Panhandle, where habitat
includes short-grass, mixed-grass and
sand sagebrush ecoregions.
The Kansas Independent Oil & Gas
Association maintains that the decision
to list contradicts important LPC data.
" KIOGA has long advocated that the
best scientific and commercial
information available demonstrates that
the LPC does not meet the ESA's
definitions of either a threatened or
endangered species, " the association
says. " Through a combination of public
and private efforts, the LPC is now
better protected than at any previous
time. A listing as threatened or
endangered will not provide any
additional conservation benefits above
what already exists. "
USFWS acknowledges that it has
partnered with stakeholders for more
than two decades to conserve the LPC
through a suite of tools and plans,
16 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER
including candidate conservation
agreements with assurances and habitat
conservation plans. These partnerships
aim to protect the species and provide
certainty for industry and landowners,
USFWS says. It notes that millions of
acres have been enrolled in these plans,
and says that, since 2010, the Natural
Resources Conservation Service has
worked with nearly 900 landowners to
implement conservation actions on
approximately 1.6 million acres, and
landowners have enrolled more than 1.8
million acres across the LPC's range in
the Conservation Reserve Program.
Voluntary conservation efforts have
helped revive LPC populations, PBPA
indicates, but the listing may reverse
those gains. " Undermining these
existing state-led conservation efforts
will invariably lead to unintended
consequences and prove to have
unnecessary adverse impacts to the LPC
and the landscape that is its habitat, "
Shepperd warns.
USFWS says it cannot yet determine
which areas qualify as LPC critical
habitat. " We will work with states and
other partners to acquire the complex
information needed to make a critical
habitat determination, " the service says.
The final rule to list the two DPS of
the LPC takes effect on Jan. 24, 60 days
after Federal Register publication. The
final rule and supporting information
are available online at
www.regulations.gov under Docket No.
FWS-R2-ES-2021-0015.
KIOGA notes that it has been
discussing the listing with key
congressional policymakers to
consider its options. " We are currently
looking at a possible Congressional
Review Act challenge and potential
measures to prohibit the Interior
Secretary and Commerce Secretary
from listing a species as threatened or
endangered under the ESA without
congressional approval, " the
association reports. r
Climate Reparations Fund
Raises Liability Concerns
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, EGYPT-
Weeks after he insisted the United States
would not agree to a climate reparations
fund at the U.N. climate change
conference (COP27), U.S. Climate
envoy John Kerry did exactly that,
media reports indicate. Some
commentators warn that the decision
seems likely to plant seeds for additional
litigation against oil and gas companies.
" It's a well-known fact that the
United States and many other countries
will not establish . . . some sort of legal
structure that is tied to compensation or
liability. That's just not happening, " a
Wall Street Journal editorial quotes
Kerry before the conference.
Nevertheless, it continues, COP27 saw
Kerry agree to such a plan.
The United Nations says the
dedicated fund will help developing
countries respond to loss and damage,
with governments agreeing to establish
a transitional committee to make
recommendations on how to
operationalize the fund at next year's
COP28. Press accounts describe the
fund as a route for developed countries
to react to " economic and
noneconomic loss and damage
associated with the adverse effects of
climate change, including extreme
weather events. "
Senator Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.,
panned the decision during an
appearance on Fox Business. " It might
be the most absurd international policy I
have ever heard of, " he assessed. " We
can't afford to give more money to
other people, especially for the purpose
of reparations as some sort of a guilt
payment, because we are more
developed than they are.
" We don't even have the money and
even if we had the money, it wouldn't
be in the top one million things that I do
with it on behalf of the people of the
United States, " Cramer added. " It's a
crazy scheme. "
Although Republican control of the
next U.S. House of Representatives may
prevent Congress from allocating
money to the fund for at least a couple
years, commentators note, that is only
one consideration.
" Biden officials claim the
agreement doesn't create new
liabilities for Americans. But the U.S.
and Europe are conceding the principle
that their emissions cause climate
damage even though there isn't a
definitive link between rising CO2
levels and natural disasters such as the
monsoon flooding in Pakistan this
year, " WSJ writes. " Countries might
also shake down U.S. fossil-fuel
producers in their own courts. " r
http://www.regulations.gov
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