In
partnership with green activists, the Department of Interior may
attempt one of the largest federal land grabs in modern times, using a
familiar vehicle—the Endangered Species Act (ESA). A record 757 new
species could be added to the protected list by 2018. The two species
with the greatest impact on private development are range birds—the
greater sage grouse and the lesser prairie chicken, both about the size
of a barnyard chicken. The economic stakes are high because of the
birds' vast habitat.
Interior is
expected to decide sometime this month whether to list the lesser
prairie chicken, which inhabits five western prairie states, as
"threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. Meantime, the Bureau of
Land Management and U.S. Forest Service are considering land-use
amendments to protect the greater sage grouse, which would lay the
groundwork for an ESA listing next year.
The
sage grouse is found in 11 western states—California, Colorado, Idaho,
Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington,
and Wyoming. Most of the areas affected are federal lands routinely used
for farming, ranching, mining, road building, water projects and oil
and gas drilling.
However, much of the prairie chicken
population and some sage grouse are on private property that could
become subject to some of the most invasive private land-use rules and
property acquisitions in the history of the protected-species law. The
birds' habitat includes an estimated 50 million to 100 million acres of
federal and private land, according to the federal Natural Resources
Conservation Service.
Environmental
groups have won victories by using a strategy called "sue and settle"
under which groups propose species for protected status and then sue the
federal government, which settles the lawsuit on terms favorable to the
greens rather than fight. These settlements typically bypass a thorough
review of the scientific evidence and exclude affected parties, such as
industry and local communities.
According
to
Kent Holsinger,
a natural resources attorney in Denver heavily involved in these
cases, "Wildlife Guardians and Center for Biological Diversity have been
party to more than 1,000 lawsuits between 1990 and the present." The
Center for Biological Diversity has made no secret of wanting to end
fossil-fuel production in the U.S.
Interior's
proposed "land use" amendments are draconian. They require a four-mile
"buffer zone" whenever a sage-grouse mating ground is discovered on
federal land. The American Petroleum Institute calls the proposed rules a
"de facto ban on drilling." It fears that compliance could cost tens of
millions of dollars in legal fees and cause years of drilling delays.
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