Species

A group of attorneys general representing 17 states, the District of Columbia and New York City filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging Trump administration changes to the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) is still on hold after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit refused to narrow its order staying the implementation of key federal authorizations that forced the project to stop work early last month.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously remanded an Endangered Species Act (ESA) case that’s of interest to the oil and gas industry back to an appellate court and ordered the court in New Orleans to decide what constitutes “habitat.”

An environmental group filed a lawsuit in an Idaho federal district court against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), alleging the agency is stonewalling the release of information on the potential impact a proposed 5,000-well drilling project in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin (PRB) would have an endangered species.

Eighteen states are challenging revamped critical habitat rules within the Endangered Species Act (ESA) that were finalized earlier this year by the Obama administration, claiming federal authorities are attempting to usurp control over state land and water resources by imposing unnecessary revisions.

Federal officials on Tuesday agreed to reconsider the status of the lesser prairie chicken, whose habitat sprawls through the oil and gas fields of West Texas, New Mexico, Kansas and the Rockies, after a petition requested it be relisted for protection.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is proposing to list the rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) — which occurs in the eastern and Midwestern United States, as well as Ontario, Canada — as an endangered species. Such a move would have implications for developers of energy infrastructure, according to observers.

Among seven resolutions passed on Tuesday, the Western Governors’ Association (WGA) adopted strong states-rights stances in two of them, regarding the need for statutory changes in the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) and future policies aimed at energy use and development during the conclusion of the association’s three-day annual meeting in Jackson, WY.

Obama administration cabinet members reinforced a push for an “all-of-the-above” energy strategy with measures to address climate change and endangered species at the Western Governors’ Association (WGA) meeting Monday in Jackson, WY.