Grouse

Interior Department officials on Friday remained optimistic that state-federal measures dealing with protecting the sage grouse will be worked out despite a Congressional move in the trillion-dollar omnibus appropriations bill to include a provision barring the federal department from moving forward on Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections (see Daily GPI, Dec. 11 ).

An oil and natural gas lease sale by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for the Ely District in northeast Nevada on Tuesday ran into apparent uncertainty about sage grouse habitat, with only one bid for a single 473-acre parcel.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) moratorium on oil/natural gas leasing in adjacent corners of Colorado and Utah has the Western Energy Alliance (WEA) crying foul.

A 21-member coalition based in Utah sent a letter to federal government authorities Monday urging that state and local concerns be adopted to put more of a balance in proposed new rules to protect the sage grouse, according to one of the coalition members, Western Energy Alliance (WEA).

While he said Colorado has some of the strictest standards in the nation for oil and natural gas development, Gov. John Hickenlooper pledged to toughen the state’s protections for air and water, working with lawmakers, the energy industry and environmental groups.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has opened a draft Utah Greater Sage Grouse Land Use Plan Amendment and Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for a 90-day public review and has identified one of five alternatives, which includes conservation measures and prescriptions developed by BLM Utah and the U.S. Forest Service, as the preferred alternative.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) on Friday proposed listing the bistate sage grouse as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), which would afford special protections to 5,000 birds along the California-Nevada border. The proposed listing comes as federal regulators consider whether the entire western sage grouse population should be protected under the ESA, a decision that would have a huge impact on energy operators.

A pair of rules proposed by the Interior Department’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) that would list as endangered the gunnison sage grouse, which is found in Colorado and Utah, and designate 1.7 million acres of critical habitat for the bird under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), would cost the two states more than $290 million annually, according to a drafteconomic analysisreleased by FWS last week.

A pair of rules proposed by the Interior Department’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) that would list as endangered the gunnison sage grouse, which is found in Colorado and Utah, and designate 1.7 million acres of critical habitat for the bird under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), would cost the two states more than $290 million annually, according to a drafteconomic analysisreleased by FWS this week.