ENDANGERED SPECIES: Bipartisanship nearly extinct at hearing on reforming iconic law
Emily Yehle, E&E reporter
Greenwire: Friday, February 28, 2014
Since the Endangered Species Act passed Congress 40 years ago, more than 1,500 species in the United States have been listed as threatened or endangered -- but very few have made it off the list.
To some Republicans, that means ESA is a failure and in need of revision. But federal officials asserted yesterday that delisting is the wrong metric; what matters instead is whether listed species are still around and improving.
That was the most fundamental disagreement at yesterday's House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee hearing on ESA. It came three weeks after Republican lawmakers released a 64-page report with a slew of recommendations for reforming ESA (Greenwire, Feb. 4).
Held by the committee's Subcommittee on Energy Policy, Health Care and Entitlements, the hearing revisited the usual points of contention: citizen lawsuits over species listings, federal versus state control of habitat plans, and controversy over the potential listing of certain species, such as the greater sage grouse and the lesser prairie chicken.
Lawmakers also questioned why some data that is used in federal decisionmaking isn't public. In some cases, the data is proprietary -- even when funded with federal dollars.
"Who paid for it? The taxpayers paid for it," said Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), whose state is trying to avoid the listing of the sage grouse. "It's not about some North Korean nuclear bomb ... we're talking about data that should be made publicly available."
The two witnesses -- Interior's Michael Bean and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Sam Rauch -- emphasized that their agencies publicly release all data they can. But they didn't deny that some data is kept private.
"I can confirm there are instances in which we would like to release data but can't because the researchers won't give it to us," said Rauch, deputy assistant administrator for regulatory programs at the National Marine Fisheries Service. "It does create issues."
Bean, counselor to the Interior secretary on fish, wildlife and parks, said the Fish and Wildlife Service works well with local and state governments. Bean, who was at the Environmental Defense Fund until 2009, helped develop "safe harbor" agreements, under which private landowners partner with the government to help imperiled wildlife.
The aim should be to take advantage of the "inherent flexibility" of ESA, he said.
"If we can learn from these lessons ... then we can continue to make progress reversing the slide toward extinction," he said, adding that species should also be added to the list before they are almost extinct.
But agreement on how -- and whether -- to revise ESA does not appear close. At one point, Rep. Rob Woodall (R-Ga.) questioned what he called the "adversarial" tone of the discussion.
"Why isn't it a big Kumbaya session to say, let's make some changes and let's refocus our resources on those most critical missions," he said. "I can't think of the last time I was involved in an ESA problem-solving session. I can think of many ESA arguments."
