Threatened Species a Focus for Energy Industry

More than 100 species in Texas could be classified as endangered by the federal government in the coming years, potentially choking development for oil and gas companies in the state. And so some of the biggest players in the energy industry —including ExxonMobil, Chevron, Chesapeake Energy, BP and Sandridge Energy — are looking to take a major role in protecting such animals, whether or not they are listed as endangered. Critics say that putting oil and gas companies in charge is not in the best interest of threatened species, but proponents say that the industry is promoting a market-based strategy that will provide strong environmental returns. Lobbyists for the Texas Oil and Gas Association have set up a non-profit organization that is overseeing a plan to conserve habitat for the dunes sagebrush lizard, a habitant of West Texas’ oil-rich Permian Basin that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declined to list as endangered last year. And an ExxonMobil lobbyist recently incorporated a foundation to oversee a conservation plan for the lesser prairie chicken, also prevalent in the Permian Basin; the agency will decide whether to list the bird for protection under the federal Endangered Species Act by next March. Both plans are loosely based on the concept of a “wildlife habitat exchange,” in which oil and gas companies that disturb habitat would pay landowners to set aside a certain amount of their own acreage for habitat conservation. Proponents of the idea — including the Environmental Defense Fund and the environmental consulting firm Natural Resources Solutions, which helped write the plans — say it is the best hope for protecting animals without crippling economic development in Texas, and they hope to apply it to other threatened species. Wildlife advocates and some public officials say that although the concept of a habitat exchange has promise, it is doomed to fail in Texas if it’s controlled by the industries that could damage habitat the most...more