Anti-fracking Protesters to Rally Outside BLM Auction in Reno Tuesday

Photo © Karen McLain Evening Light | Design by Anne Novak for ProtectMustangs.org

Photo © Karen McLain Evening Light | Design by Anne Novak for ProtectMustangs.org

Coalition Urges BLM to Cancel Lease Sales to Protect Water, Health and Environment

RENO, Nev.— Protesters wearing blue and carrying water jugs will rally outside the U.S. Bureau of Land Management office in Reno on Tuesday morning to protest the auction of fracking leases on public lands. The auction of over 150,000 acres in Lincoln and Nye counties in BLM’s Ely District will begin at 9 a.m. at the BLM Nevada State Headquarters building located at 1340 Financial Boulevard in Reno. Frack-Free Nevada and Nevadans Against Fracking, which is organizing the protest, is calling on the BLM to cancel the sale in order to protect water, people, wildlife and quality of life from the dangers of fracking.

The protest will be Tuesday, Dec. 9, from 7:45 a.m. to 9:15 a.m.

“Fracking is a big risk to Nevada’s water, and without adequate clean water, we have nothing,” said Dan Patterson, with the Center for Biological Diversity, a member of the coalition. “The fracking industry wants to get its hands on Nevada, but while they reap profits, our wildlife and water supplies will pay the price. Across the state, from Reno to Austin and Reese River Valley, to Ely, eastern Nevada and Las Vegas, Nevadans want to protect our water, quality of life, lands and wildlife from the fracking push.”

Fracking uses huge volumes of water, mixed with sand and dangerous chemicals, to blast open rock formations and release oil and gas. The controversial technique is being proposed on hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands managed by the BLM across Nevada.

A typical hydraulic fracturing process uses between 1.2 million and 3.5 million gallons of water per well, with large projects using up to 5 million gallons. This water often resurfaces as “flowback,” which is often highly polluted by fracking chemicals as well as radioactive materials from fractured shale.

Fracking has brought environmental and economic problems to rural communities across the country. Accidents and leaks have polluted rivers, streams and drinking water. Regions peppered with drilling rigs have high levels of smog, global warming gases, as well as other airborne pollutants, including potential carcinogens. Rural communities face an onslaught of heavy truck traffic — often laden with dangerous chemicals used in drilling — and declining property values. Wildlife habitat is also fragmented and degraded.

“Fracking is part of a larger problem, a problem where money trumps common sense and we jeopardize our precious water for a few dollars,” said Dawn Harris of Frack-Free Nevada and Nevadans Against Fracking. “Nevada state and local officials should ban fracking to protect our water, as people in places like Denton, Texas and San Benito County, California have done.”

“Nevada’s precious groundwater should not be sacrificed for short term profits of corporations. In our arid desert, groundwater should always trump oil,” said Bob Fulkerson of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada.

Communities directly affected by oil and gas fracking, as a result of these sales, were not alerted by BLM in advance of preparing lease sale.

“Nevada Tribes have a vested interest in protecting our ancestral homelands from being harmed by the oil & gas industry,” said Jennifer Eisele, of the Shoshone Paiute Tribes, Duck Valley Indian Reservation. “We have a spiritual relationship with Mother Earth and it is our duty to protect our natural resources for the future existence of ourselves and descendants. Exploitation of fossil fuels may harm our water quality and damage our agriculture, which is our primary means of economic support.”

“Water is precious in the desert. I’m afraid of fracking chemicals being injected into our groundwater,” said Jennifer Messina of Ely, a retired teacher. “People are working to promote eastern Nevada as a great place to live and visit. All our efforts are lost if fracking poisons our ground.”

“BLM has a mandate to protect the safety of the environment and human health, but both BLM and the oil and gas industry have poor records,” said Dr. Bonnie Eberhardt Bobb of Austin, Nevada, in southern Lander County. “Dangerous fracking fluids could seep in to our groundwater. Disposal of fracking waste by injection in to the ground has also been correlated with increased earthquake activity.”

This summer, Lander County Commissioners objected and filed administrative protests over BLM’s sale of oil and gas fracking leases in Big Smokey Valley. Earlier this fall, the Lander County Water Board unanimously passed a resolution opposing any drilling or fracking in the Middle Reese River Valley, near Austin, due to threats to town water sources.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 800,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

Frack-Free Nevada and Nevadans Against Fracking seeks to protect Nevada’s precious water, maintain the health and quality of life of Nevada communities, guard our air quality, improve agriculture and ranching, and preserve wildlife.

Lawsuit Filed to Halt Massive Las Vegas Water Grab

Water for wildlife in Nevada including wild horses (Photo © Anne Novak, all rights reserved.)

Water for wildlife in Nevada including wild horses (Photo © Anne Novak, all rights reserved.)

Pipeline Would Dry Up Springs and Wetlands, Hurt Fish, Sage Grouse, Pronghorn and Other Species

LAS VEGAS— The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit in U.S. district court today to halt a right-of-way needed for the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s long-proposed pipeline (commonly known as the “Groundwater Development Project”). If allowed to proceed, the pipeline would siphon more than 27.3 billion gallons of groundwater each year from the desert of eastern Nevada and pump it more than 260 miles to the Las Vegas Valley. The controversial $15.5 billion project would have profound effects on people, wildlife and Nevada’s natural heritage.

“Enough is enough,” said Rob Mrowka, a Nevada-based senior scientist with the Center. “Despite hundreds of pages detailing the unthinkable harm that would be caused by this project, tens of thousands of people signing petitions against it, and setbacks in state district and supreme courts, the Southern Nevada Water Authority and BLM have closed their ears to reason, logic and plain common sense. They need to drop this disastrous water grab.”

The Groundwater Development Project would, by the authority’s own admission, dry up or “adversely affect” more than 5,500 acres of meadows, more than 200 springs, 33 miles of trout streams, and 130,600 acres of sagebrush habitat for sage grouse, mule deer, elk and pronghorn as water tables plunge by 200 feet.

The greater sage grouse is an upland bird species, iconic and completely dependent on sagebrush habitat for its existence; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found the bird to warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act in 2010. Its numbers have plummeted by more than 50 percent in recent decades due to fragmentation and loss of habitat (more of which would occur with the Southern Nevada groundwater pumping project). The Fish and Wildlife Service must make a decision on listing the bird for protections under the Endangered Species Act by 2015 under a settlement agreement with the Center.

At least 25 species of Great Basin springsnails would also be pushed toward extinction, and 14 species of desert fish would be hurt, including the Moapa dace and White River springfish. Frogs and toads would fare little better, with four species severely threatened by the dewatering.

In the lawsuit the Center argues that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management violated the National Environmental Policy Act and Federal Land Policy and Management Act in approving the groundwater development project.

“These laws exist because Americans care about their public lands,” said Mrowka. “Congress passed these laws to make sure our public lands are managed on the basis of multiple-use, to protect irreplaceable cultural and natural resources for current and future generations. They exist so that the needs of future generations of Americans can be taken into account — not just short-term economic growth and greed.”

The suit asserts the agencies failed to analyze impacts from permanently and irreversibly impairing the water springs, groundwater wetlands and wildlife habitat in the project area; failed to consider climate change; failed to adequately disclose how the project would comply with requirements of the Clean Water Act; and failed to comply with the Resource Management Plan in effect for the area.

Also raised in the lawsuit is the fact that the Water Authority has no rights to water to put into the proposed pipeline. On Dec. 10, 2013, the 7th Judicial District Court of Nevada issued a decision — which had been sought by the Center and allies in the Great Basin Water Network — that stripped the Authority of 83,988 acre-feet per year of groundwater due to severe deficiencies in the analysis that supported the original award of rights. The judge called the water-grab plan “likely the largest interbasin transfer of water in U.S. history.”

The Center has asked the court to order the BLM to prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement that addresses the flawed analysis, as well as to enjoin the agency from implementing any part of the project until it can be judged to be in full compliance with the law.

Background
On Dec. 19, 2013, the Center notified the BLM that due to the decision by the district court, the agency must withdraw its “record of decision” for the groundwater development project and reevaluate the proposed project and its purpose and need. Under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, an applicant for a right-of-way for a pipeline must have a valid existing right established under state law, which the Authority in this case does not. The BLM has not responded to the Center’s letter.

The Center has actively opposed this water grab since 2006. In 2010 and 2011 it filed hundreds of formal protests with the Nevada state engineer opposing the award of water rights to the Water Authority; it was these rights that were stripped by the state district court.

The Center is a member of the Great Basin Water Network, formed in 2004, a broad coalition of government agencies, American Indian tribes, organizations and individuals opposed to this groundwater development project of whose board Rob Mrowka is a member. The Water Network will also file suit against the pipeline right-of-way, as may other individual entities in the Network.

The groundwater development project is projected to cost over $15.5 billion when financing costs are included. The Network is not opposed to water for southern Nevada but instead of a short-term pipeline proposes water be gained from increased indoor and outdoor conservation, reasonable limits to growth, re-evaluating how the Colorado River is managed and used, and long-term solar-powered desalinization of Pacific Ocean water.

The Center is represented by Marc Fink, staff attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, and local counsel, Julie Cavanaugh-Bill of Elko, Nevada.  

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 675,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

Californians Show Strong Opposition to Fracking at Today’s State of the State Address

 

Crowd of protesters urges Governor Brown to halt fracking

 

 

Sacramento, Calif. (January 22, 2014)—About 200 concerned Californians gathered outside the Capitol building today to implore Governor Brown to mitigate the state’s drought by halting the water-intensive drilling technique called fracking (hydraulic fracturing), and other extreme oil extraction methods.

The protest, which took place while the governor gave his State of the State Address before a joint session of the California Legislature, represented Californians from across the state and was organized by 350.org, California State Grange, Center for Biological Diversity, Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment, CREDO, Food & Water Watch, Friends of the Earth, Oil Change International, and other members of the statewide coalition Californians Against Fracking.

While the protest took place on the lawn of the Capitol building, activists from Oil Change International and 350.org deployed a three-story banner across from the State House with the message: “Governor Brown: Climate Leaders Don’t Frack. Ban Fracking Now.” (See photos from this morning’s event here: http://fwwat.ch/CASOTSfrackprotest)

“By allowing fracking to happen in California, Jerry Brown’s actions are in direct conflict with his rhetoric today on water conservation and climate change,” said Food & Water Watch California Director Adam Scow. “Brown’s current water and energy policies mismanage the people of California’s water supply, and this – not his ‘green’ talk – will be what defines his legacy.”

“California is facing both a water crisis and a climate crisis, both of which would be made worse by fracking,” said Hollin Kretzmann, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Governor Brown has a huge opportunity to tackle both these challenges by banning fracking. A ban would prove he is a strong leader when it comes to protecting Californians.”

“With the recent drought declaration, the writing is now truly on the wall. It’s far past time for Governor Brown to protect our state’s climate and precious water resources by banning fracking today,” said David Turnbull, Campaigns Director of Oil Change International.

“Having just declared a drought emergency, it’s time for Governor Brown to face the facts and recognize that digging up and burning California’s reserves of dirty shale oil is only going to make this crisis worse,” said Ross Hammond, senior campaigner, Friends of the Earth.

“It’s hypocritical for Governor Brown to ask Californians to cut their personal water usage while pushing a plan that would allow the fracking industry to massively increase the amount of water it consumes and contaminates,” said Zack Malitz, CREDO’s Campaign Manager. “If Governor Brown moves forward with his fracking plan, he’ll be forcing farmers and ranchers to compete with the fracking industry for water while exacerbating climate change and making California even more vulnerable to extreme drought in the future.”

“The people most negatively affected by both the recent drought and fracking are low income communities of color in California’s Central Valley,” said Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment Senior Attorney Sofia Parino. “We need a leader who can both protect natural resources and be a champion for all communities. Governor Brown can do that by stopping fracking now.”

“From the record dry temperatures to the wildfires across the state, the climate crisis is confronting the state every day. Governor Brown needs to live up to his legacy as a climate leader and ban fracking now,” said fracking campaigner Linda Capato at 350.org.

Oil companies are gearing up to frack large reservoirs of unconventional shale oil in the Monterey Shale. Fracking uses large volumes of water mixed with dangerous chemicals to blast open rock formations and release oil and gas. Fracking releases large amounts of methane, a dangerously potent greenhouse gas. Rather than protecting our state, rules recently proposed by state officials will actually open the door to fracking, further endangering California’s air, water, wildlife, public health and climate.

Members of Californians Against Fracking have protested at Governor Brown’s speaking engagements around the state to call attention to the governor’s failure to take meaningful action against the threats of fracking. Since the launch of Californians Against Fracking in May of 2013, more than 200,000 petitions have been signed urging Governor Brown to ban fracking in California. Farmers, environmental justice groups, public health advocates, local elected officials, students, celebrities and many others are calling on Governor Brown to halt fracking in California. Most recently, on January 14, Californians Against Fracking delivered over 100,000 public comments denouncing Governor Brown’s fracking regulations and calling for a ban on fracking.

 

San Francisco Supervisors Urge Halt to Fracking in California

Photo © Karen McLain Evening Light | Design by Anne Novak for ProtectMustangs.org

Photo © Karen McLain Evening Light | Design by Anne Novak for ProtectMustangs.org

Californians Against Fracking Applauds Resolution Citing Fracking Pollution’s Threat to State’s Air, Water, Progress on Climate Change

SAN FRANCISCO (January 14, 2014)— The San Francisco Board of Supervisors today approved a measure urging a halt to hydraulic fracturing in California because of fracking’s threats to the state’s air, water and efforts to fight dangerous climate change.

The resolution, which was introduced by Supervisor David Chiu and passed unanimously, was applauded by 350 Bay Area, Center for Biological Diversity, CREDO, Food & Water Watch, Friends of the Earth and other members of Californians Against Fracking, a statewide coalition working to ban fracking, an inherently harmful form of oil and gas extraction that endangers California’s air, water, wildlife, climate and public health.

“We are deeply concerned about the threats fracking poses to California’s water, our coastal environment, and the well-being of people across the state, so the Board of Supervisors is urging a halt to this practice,” said Supervisor Chiu. “As California studies the risks of dangerous forms of oil and gas production, it would be wise to follow New York’s lead and halt fracking.”

“We congratulate Supervisor Chiu and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for taking a stand against fracking pollution’s threat to California,” said Hollin Kretzmann, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. “This resolution sends a strong message to Governor Brown that we need an immediate halt to this inherently dangerous practice, which could undermine California’s fight against climate change and do irreparable damage to the air we breathe and the water we drink.”

San Francisco’s resolution follows an Associated Press investigation that confirmed cases of water contamination from oil and gas drilling in four other states where fracking has boomed. Other local jurisdictions in California have weighed in on the issue of fracking, calling for greater regulation, bans or moratoriums, including Marin County, Santa Cruz County, Ventura County and Santa Barbara County.

“The oil industry and their allies in Sacramento would like us to believe that weak regulations can protect California from the dangers of fracking but we know that the only safe path is to halt this risky practice all together,” said Ross Hammond of Friends of the Earth. “The San Francisco Board of Supervisors should be applauded for standing up and doing the right thing.”

Fracking uses huge volumes of water mixed with dangerous chemicals to blast open rock formations and release oil and gas. Fracking releases large amounts of methane, a dangerously potent greenhouse gas.

The controversial technique has been used in hundreds and perhaps thousands of California oil and gas wells without regulation. Rules recently proposed by state officials would do little to safeguard California’s air, water, wildlife and public health from the pollution generated by this inherently dangerous technique.

Oil companies are gearing up to frack large reservoirs of unconventional shale oil in the Monterey Shale. The area is home to some of the state’s most productive farmland, critical water sources, important wildlife habitat and dozens of towns and cities from the Salinas Valley to the Los Angeles Basin.

Californians Against Fracking is a coalition of more than 150 environmental, consumer, business, faith, health, agriculture, labor, political, and environmental justice organizations working to win a statewide ban on fracking in California. For more information, visit: www.CaliforniansAgainstFracking.org

Obama nominated Ken Salazar, endorsed by the Sierra Club and the Safari Club (2008)

By U.S. Government [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

By U.S. Government [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

 

Obama Nominates Salazar for Interior Secretary, Vilsack for Agriculture

Thursday 18 December 2008

by: Dan Bacher, t r u t h o u t | Report
President-elect Barack Obama formally announced the nomination of Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado for secretary of the interior.

    After a couple of weeks of Washington insiders speculating about which people might be selected for two of the nation’s key environmental posts, President-elect Barack Obama today formally announced the nominations of Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado for secretary of the interior and former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack for secretary of agriculture.

Just a week ago, Congressmen Mike Thompson (D-California) and Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona) were supposedly on Obama’s “short list” for the secretary of interior. A broad coalition of national fishing and hunting organizations, conservation groups and the Karuk Tribe was supporting the nomination of Thompson, while a coalition of environmentalists and national Latino organizations was backing Grijalva. As it turned out, neither of the two apparently likely candidates was chosen.

Obama took a shot at the Bush administration’s environmental polices in explaining his reasons for choosing Salazar.

“I want a more proactive Interior Department,” the president-elect stated. “I also want an Interior Department that, very frankly, cleans up its act. There have been too many problems and too much – too much emphasis on big-time lobbyists in Washington and not enough emphasis on what’s good for the American people, and that’s going to change under Ken Salazar.”

Obama hailed Salazar as a “champion for farmers, ranchers, and rural communities” that will “bring to the Department of Interior an abiding commitment to this land we love.” He also affirmed “that tribal nations have a voice in this administration” with the appointment of Salazar.

In accepting the nomination today, Salazar vowed to promote clean energy, protect the country’s public lands and national parks, restore the nation’s rivers and work with Native American communities.

“I look forward to helping build our clean energy economy, modernize our interstate electrical grid, and ensure that we are making wise use of our conventional natural resources, including coal, oil and natural gas,” said Salazar. “I look forward to protecting our national parks, public lands and open spaces, and America’s farm and ranchlands. I look forward to restoring our Nation’s rivers and working to resolve our water supply challenges. I look forward to helping to address the challenges faced by our Native American communities across the Nation.”

The Sierra Club, which didn’t endorse any candidate for the interior post, praised the nominations. Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, said he was confident that Salazar would promote green energy policies and “undo the damage” of the Bush years.

“The Sierra Club is very pleased with the nomination of Ken Salazar to head the Interior Department,” said Pope. “As a Westerner and a rancher, he understands the value of our public lands, parks, and wildlife and has been a vocal critic of the Bush administration’s reckless efforts to sell-off our public lands to Big Oil and other special interests. Senator Salazar has been a leader in protecting places like the Roan Plateau and he has stood up against the Bush’s administration’s dangerous rush to develop oil shale in Colorado and across the West.

“Senator Salazar has also been a leading voice in calling for the development of the West’s vast solar, wind, and geothermal resources. He will make sure that we create the good-paying green jobs that will fuel our economic recovery without harming the public lands he will be charged with protecting.

“Senator Salazar will inherit an agency that has suffered from a pervasive rot under the Bush administration due to widespread corruption, simple incompetence, and severe underfunding. We are confident that Senator Salazar will work with President-Elect Obama to undo the damage of the Bush years and chart a course that will allow this vast agency to return to its proud legacy of protecting our last wild places, wildlife, and vast natural resources.”

    Safari Club International (SCI) today also expressed its support for Obama’s choice of Senator Salazar as his administration’s next interior secretary.

Senator Salazar is currently a member of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus and has been a consistent pro-sportsman vote since he came to Washington, DC, in 2004. “With this appointment, President-Elect Obama has made the logical choice of an Interior Secretary who understands the sportsmen’s legacy of hunting and conservation on America’s public lands,” according to a statement from SCI.

“We are pleased that President-Elect Obama has resisted the pressure from anti-hunting groups to name an anti-hunting extremist to this important post,” said SCI President Merle Shepard. “Senator Salazar’s pro-hunting votes over the past four years in Washington, and his support for access to federal lands for hunting throughout his entire career in Colorado will prove to be invaluable for sportsmen and women during this Administration.”

“SCI looks forward to working with Senator Salazar in the Obama Administration to make sure the hunter’s voice is heard on every issue that affects hunting, hunters or science-based wildlife management,” Shepard stated.

The Sierra Club also lauded Vilsack’s nomination. “The Sierra Club congratulates Governor Vilsack on his appointment to head the Department of Agriculture,” said Pope. “We look forward to working with him in this new role. With a Secretary Vilsack overseeing the National Forest System and the Conservation Reserve Program, we are optimistic that USDA can once again become a responsible steward of wilderness and vital habitat for wildlife.

“Governor Vilsack can play an important role in helping to bring about the clean energy economy in a way that benefits both farmers and rural communities and our environment,” Pope suggested. “The USDA can take the lead in moving us past the corn-based ethanol of today toward the next-generation biofuels of tomorrow. These next-generation biofuels will not just provide farmers with new sources of income and help us break our dangerous dependence on oil, but they will also help President-Elect Obama achieve his ambitious plans to tackle global warming.”

Here is Salazar’s nomination acceptance statement:

Senator Salazar Accepts Nomination to Lead Interior Department

Wednesday December 17, 2008

Chicago, Illinois – Today, United States Senator Ken Salazar made the following statement today after President-elect Obama formally nominated him to serve as the next Secretary of the United States Department of Interior:

“I am humbled and honored to be nominated by President-Elect Barack Obama to serve as Secretary of the Interior.

“My story in America began more than 400 years ago when my ancestors settled the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico. They named it the City of Holy Faith.

“As my family struggled for survival across twelve generations in Colorado and New Mexico, their faith that humanity could achieve the potential given to each human being by our Creator has been the bedrock that has sustained them over those many years.

“Today as I stand here, I see their faith shining brightly on Barack Obama.

“I know Barack Obama as a champion for change, and I am grateful for his confidence in me.

“I look forward to serving as a strong voice in the Administration for the West and the Nation.

“As the Nominee to be Secretary of the Interior, I will do all I can to help reduce Americaís dangerous dependence on foreign oil.

“I look forward to working directly with President-Elect Obama as an integral part of his team as we take the moon shot on energy independence.

“That energy imperative will create jobs here in America, protect our national security, and confront the dangers of global warming.

“I look forward to helping build our clean energy economy, modernize our interstate electrical grid, and ensure that we are making wise use of our conventional natural resources, including coal, oil, and natural gas.

“I look forward to protecting our national parks, public lands and open spaces, and America’s farm and ranchlands.

“I look forward to restoring our Nation’s rivers and working to resolve our water supply challenges.

“I look forward to helping to address the challenges faced by our Native American communities across the Nation.

“And I look forward to investing in America’s young people by implementing President-Elect Obama’s vision for youth programs across America.

“I want to thank, first and foremost, my entire family; especially my wife, Hope, and daughters Melinda and Andrea. Without their courage and unwavering support, I would not be here today.

“I want to thank my late father, Henry, and my mother, Emma. As a soldier and a public servant in World War II, they instilled in me the values that enabled me and all of my siblings to achieve the American dream.

“I want to thank my seven brothers and sisters and all of my family because they have always inspired me to reach for the stars.

“I want to thank the five million people of the state of Colorado who gave me the privilege of serving as their chief law enforcement officer as Attorney General and as their United States Senator. I look forward to serving Colorado, the West, and the Nation, in this new capacity. I will work hard to make you proud.

“Finally, I want to thank the Members of the United States Senate for their dedication and friendship. I have been honored and blessed to serve with them, Democrats and Republicans alike.

“And to my wonderful staff in the United States Senate: thank you for your loyalty and dedication to excellence.

“I thank President-Elect Obama and I look forward to serving as a member of his team.”

Author’s Note: After I wrote my article about the Salazar nomination, I received this press release from the Center for Biological Diversity. In contrast to the Sierra Club, the Center is strongly opposing the nomination. The reaction to Salazar’s nomination is receiving very mixed reviews in the environmental community. – dan/TO

For Immediate Release, December 16, 2008

Contact: Kieran Suckling, Executive Director, (520) 275-5960

Ken Salazar a Disappointing Choice for Secretary of the Interior

Stronger, More Scientifically Based Leadership Needed to Fix Crisis-Plagued Agency

Tucson, Arizona – Strong rumors are circulating that President-elect Barack Obama has selected Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., as the new Secretary of the Interior. As the overseer of the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Minerals Management Services, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Endangered Species Act, the Secretary of the Interior is most important position in the protection of America’s lands, waters, and endangered species.

The Department of the Interior has been rocked by scandals during the Bush administration, most revolving around corrupt bureaucrats overturning and squelching agency scientists as they attempted to protect endangered species and natural resources from exploitation by developers, loggers, and oil and gas development. As recently as Monday, the Interior Department Inspector General issued another in a string of reports finding that top Department officials systematically violated laws and regulations in order to avoid or eliminate environmental protections.

“The Department of the Interior desperately needs a strong, forward looking, reform-minded Secretary,” said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity. “Unfortunately, Ken Salazar is not that man. He endorsed George Bush’s selection of Gale Norton as Secretary of Interior, the very woman who initiated and encouraged the scandals that have rocked the Department of the Interior. Virtually all of the misdeeds described in yesterday’s Inspector General expose occurred during the tenure of the person Ken Salazar advocated for the position he is now seeking.”

While Salazar has promoted some good environmental actions and fought against off-road vehicle abuse, his overall record is decidedly mixed, and is especially weak in the arenas most important to the next Secretary of the Interior: protecting scientific integrity, combating global warming, reforming energy development and protecting endangered species. Salazar:

  • voted against increased fuel efficiency standards for the U.S. automobile fleet
  • voted to allow offshore oil drilling along Florida’s coast
  • voted to allow the Army Corps of Engineers to ignore global warming impacts in their water development projects
  • voted against the repeal of tax breaks for Exxon-Mobil
  • voted to support subsidies to ranchers and other users of public forest and range lands
  • threatened to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when its scientists determined the black-tailed prairie dog may be endangered
  • fought efforts to increase protection for endangered species and the environment in the Farm Bill

“Obama’s choices for Secretary of Energy and his “Climate Change Czar” indicate a determined willingness to take on global warming,” Suckling said. “That team will be weakened by the addition of Ken Salazar, who has fought against federal action on global warming, against higher fuel efficiency standards, and for increased oil drilling and oil subsidies.”

In addition to his misstep on Norton, Salazar endorsed the elevation of William Myers III to the federal bench. Myers was a former Interior Department Solicitor and lobbyist for the ranching industry. Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., called him ”the most anti-environmental candidate for the bench I have seen in 37 years in the Senate.” Bizarrely, Salazar praised Myers’ “outstanding legal reasoning” regarding endangered species, Indian affairs, federal lands and water, timber, and fish and wildlife issues. The American Bar Association rated Myers as “not qualified.” Salazar later supported Alberto Gonzales for Attorney General, introducing him at his Senate confirmation hearing.

    “One of the most important jobs of the Secretary of the Interior is to help pick dozens of critically important political appointees to oversee America’s conservation system,” Suckling said. “His past misjudgments of Norton, Myers and Gonzales give us little confidence he will choose wisely in the future.”

Link: http://archive.truthout.org/121808EA

Climate report erroneously calls for removing native wild horses

Cattle grazing (Photo © Anne Novak, all rights reserved

Statement from Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs:

“This report has glaring errors. It avoids classifying America’s wild horses as natives to justify removing them from large areas of public land. Commercial livestock is the problem not wild horses. We object to the proposal to remove native wild horses and request they rectify the error calling them ‘feral horses’. Native wild horses heal the wild land–they can replenish the biodiversity in the West.”

 

November 26, 2012 News Release from The Center for Biological Diversity

Climate Report Calls for Grazing Reductions on Public Lands

TUCSON, Ariz.— A newly published report in the journal Environmental Management describes how climate change threatens to worsen impacts on public lands, watersheds and wildlife by grazing of domestic and feral livestock and unnaturally large native ungulate populations. The report calls on federal agencies to protect large tracts of public lands from livestock grazing to restore ecosystems, help lands and wildlife adapt to climate change, and provide ecological services and future benchmarks for grazed lands. It details how grazing reductions are within the legal authority of the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, which together administer livestock grazing across 258 million acres of public wildlands.

“We want to be able to rely on healthy, resilient wild places in this era of climate change, so that our country’s heritage wildlife can survive. That’ll mean cutting back on harmful land uses like cattle grazing; it’ll mean bringing back the carnivores that keep native populations of elk and deer in check,” said Taylor McKinnon of the Center for Biological Diversity, which has worked for more than 20 years to reduce overgrazing on western public lands. “By looking at the combined impacts of grazing and climate change, this report is the first of its kind, and it underscores the need for immediate action from federal agencies.”

Domestic livestock are grazed across 258 million acres of western land administered by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management — 81 percent of the land administered by the two agencies in the 11 western states. Those lands provide critical refuge for native biological diversity and offer vital ecological services like clean air, water and recreation to society. There are approximately 23,600 public-lands ranchers, representing about 6 percent of all livestock producers west of the Mississippi River.

The report concludes that:

  • In the western United States, climate change is expected to intensify even if greenhouse gas emissions are dramatically reduced; threats facing ecosystems as a result of climate change are invasive species, more frequent wildfires and declining snowpack.
  • Climate impacts are compounded from heavy use by livestock and other grazing ungulates, which causes soil erosion, compaction, and dust generation; stream degradation; higher water temperatures and pollution; loss of habitat for fish, birds and amphibians; and desertification.
  • Encroachment of woody shrubs at the expense of native grasses and other plants can occur in grazed areas, affecting pollinators, birds, small mammals and other native wildlife.
  • Livestock grazing and trampling degrades soil fertility, stability and hydrology, and makes it vulnerable to wind erosion. This in turn adds sediments, nutrients and pathogens to western streams.
  • Reestablishing apex predators in large, contiguous areas of public land may help mitigate any adverse ecological effects of wild ungulates.

Livestock grazing is one of the most ubiquitous and destructive uses of public land. It is also a contributing factor to the imperilment of numerous threatened and endangered species, including the desert tortoise, Mexican spotted owl, southwestern willow flycatcher, least Bell’s vireo, Mexican gray wolf, Oregon spotted frog, Chiricahua leopard frog and dozens of other species that occur on western public land.

Public-lands livestock grazing is also a primary contributor to unnaturally severe western wildfires, watershed degradation, soil loss and the spread of invasive plants — as well as annual greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to that of 705,342 passenger vehicles.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 450,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2012/grazing-11-26-2012.html