Sage

Western governors lauded a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) decision on the bi-state sage grouse population as an indication that the bird can be protected more widely while oil/gas development is still encouraged.

The nation’s largest conservation bank — and a first for greater sage grouse — has been established in central Wyoming to provide credits that would allow energy development in other parts of the state.

As it signaled late last year it would do, Colorado on Thursday filed a lawsuit against federal officials over the “threatened’ designation given the Gunnison sage grouse, despite the state’s work with federal agencies to avoid the listing.

Governors of western states have asked for clarification from U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell on the federal agency’s efforts to save the greater sage grouse in the face of congressional action to delay a federal listing decision on the bird.

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.