WHITNEY ROYSTER Star-Tribune environmental reporter | Posted: Wednesday, February 28, 2007 12:00 am
JACKSON - The federal government is jeopardizing wildlife in the West by not assuring adequate reviews of some energy development, Gov. Dave Freudenthal told members of the Western Governors Association this week.
On Tuesday in Washington, D.C., fellow Western governors agreed with Freudenthal and approved a resolution calling for an amendment to the federal Energy Policy Act. That amendment would strengthen environmental requirements to assure energy development is not harming big game habitat and migration corridors.
The resolution was sponsored by Freudenthal, who argued a portion of the 2005 federal law allows certain lands to be excluded from environmental reviews, including some lands considered crucial to big game.
Those exemptions stem from so-called "categorical exclusions," a legal term meaning a project is not subject to intense environmental review. In the Energy Policy Act, categorical exclusions are applied to areas that are currently the sites of energy development, and areas that have existing environmental reviews completed within the last five years.
That includes areas in Wyoming such as the Pinedale Anticline natural gas field.
Freudenthal maintains the situation on the ground has changed in many areas, and current analysis of conditions for wildlife is critical to ensure their survival.
But U.S. Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., disagrees with Freudenthal's assessment of the Energy Policy Act. The senator's staff says an environmental review is required for any area where a situation has changed, including big game habitat.
Cameron Hardy, press secretary for Thomas, said the Energy Policy Act's provision for categorical exclusions simply means if the situation on the ground hasn't changed, no additional analysis is needed when an area comes up for development. If the situation has changed, land managers should be taking that into account along with their previous assessment, Hardy said.
"Categorical exclusions were meant to remove steps, if those steps are duplicative of work that has already been completed," he said.
According to the Bureau of Land Management, 1,361 permits to drill were approved under categorical exclusions in an eight-month period ending in September 2006, Freudenthal's office reported in a press release. Wyoming had the most with 596, followed by New Mexico with 538; Utah, 111; Colorado, 59; California, 37; Arizona, 18; and Eastern states, two.
Rob Black, spokesman for Freudenthal's office, noted that resource management plans are being developed in various Bureau of Land Management state field offices. "The field offices have been telling industry that once the (management plans) are approved, they don't need to do an (environmental impact statement), which is the tool where additional protections/mitigation is addressed."
That concerns the governor, Black said.
"The resource management plans will usually contain seasonal stipulations aimed at protecting habitat from impacts, but they do not allow or encourage the use of other tools such as habitat mitigation, using pipelines rather than trucking, consolidation of wells and directional drilling for the specific categorical-exclusion applications for permit to drill," he said. "The categorical exclusions would in some cases prevent a more detailed level of … analysis that could otherwise include those measures later."
Notably, there has been a 46 percent decline in mule deer using the Pinedale Anticline, in part due to increased drilling activity.
"Development has been both rapid and intense, development on a scale not seen or foreseen at the time the categorical exclusions were formulated," Black said.
Steven Hall, spokesman for the BLM in Cheyenne, said some categorical exclusions have been implemented in Wyoming as called for by the Energy Policy Act. But he said the BLM continues to work with the state on wildlife habitat and migration issues.
Peter Aengst, energy coordinator for the Wilderness Society, applauded Freudenthal's resolution and said it was needed "to restore some balance to BLM's management of oil and gas development."
"This important resolution sends the message that the Bush administration has gone too far in fast-tracking new natural gas development and America's treasured wildlife is taking a real hit," Aengst said. "As this resolution makes clear - and state wildlife agencies and conservationists have long advocated - there is a better way where much of the gas can be extracted but key wildlife habitats get protected. Let's hope Congress and the administration listen to the Western governors."
Bruce Hinchey, president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, said he had not seen the governors' resolution, but industry is working continually with land managers to protect wildlife. Companies have given money for studies and for habitat mitigation, and intense reclamation is also a boon to wildlife, he said.
In its resolution, the Western Governors Association also asks that until Congress amends the Energy Policy Act, the Interior and Agriculture departments consider placing a moratorium on categorical exclusions occurring in crucial habitat or migration corridors until the BLM can work collaboratively with the states.
The group also asks that the federal government fund a new program that would allow state, local and federal land managers to identify critical wildlife areas.
"Additionally, the Western Governors request that the federal land managers, working with the states, develop a performance-based, objective protocol for permits to drill that includes industry monitoring of how well the protocol is being met, and enforcement by the federal agencies, should the monitoring determine that the protocol is not being met," the resolution said.
Environmental reporter Whitney Royster can be reached at (307) 734-0260 or at royster@tribcsp.com.