American Oil and Gas Reporter - August 2015 - 152

Survey in lobbying for reasonable seismic
regulations because of ISGS's interest in
carbon sequestration. He noted the ISGS
had quickly denounced a study released in
June by the University of Colorado that
purported a link between any injection well
within 15 kilometers of an earthquake.
"(ISGS) doesn't want that kind of nonsense," Richards assured.

ESA Lawsuits
On species issues, Peter J. Regan, executive director of the Domestic Energy
Producers Alliance, recalled that in February, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict
Litigation had moved DEPA's lawsuit
challenging government "sue-and-settle"
agreements from the U.S. District Court
for the Northern District of Oklahoma in
Tulsa to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, where it was combined
with a lawsuit filed by WildEarth
Guardians that challenged the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service's decision to list the
lesser prairie chicken merely as threatened
rather than endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
DEPA, along with the state of Oklahoma and several other oil and gas associations, challenged USFWS's 2011 decision
to fast-track more than 250 species listings
to settle a lawsuit brought by WildEarth
Guardians and the Center for Biological
Diversity.
"(Washington) is not the best venue for
us," Regan acknowledged, pointing out
that DEPA would have to argue its case
before the very judge who approved the
2011 settlement agreement.
He did note that on the positive side,
a motion to bifurcate the DEPA and
WildEarth Guardians lawsuits had been
denied. He said that was important because
the sue-and-settle question was at the core
of challenges to the lesser prairie chicken's listing.
Stephen Robertson, new executive
vice president of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association, was more upbeat on a

lawsuit filed by PBPA and four southeastern New Mexico counties that contends
USFWS violated the Administrative Procedures Act in listing the lesser prairie
chicken by failing to adequately consider the benefits of various industries' conservation efforts.
"We have been able to withstand several motions to transfer venue," he told Liaison. "The case remains in (U.S. District
Court of the Western District of Texas) in
Midland, so hopefully, that will be favorable."
Bats And Birds
On the legislative front, Samantha
McDonald, IPAA director of government relations, noted that HR 1735, the
National Defense Authorization Act,
which passed the U.S. House of Representatives on May 15, included an amendment
by Congressman Frank Lucas, R-Ok., to
reverse the lesser prairie chicken's threatened listing and delay a decision for five
years. It also would, among other things,
delay the listing of the greater sage grouse
for 10 years, she added.
She said the Senate version of the bill,
S 1376, which passed by a veto-proof majority on June 18, did not include the ESA
provisions. If the amendment makes it
through the conference, she ventured,
"Despite low-level veto threats, I think it
would be difficult for President Obama to
delay implementing this important legislation. Our troops won't get paid if the
NDAA isn't signed into law by the end of
September. He would be the first president in more than 50 years to veto the
NDAA."
The species of concern in Ohio, offered
OOGA Vice President of Public Affairs
Penny Seipel, is the northern long-eared
bat, which USFWS listed as threatened in
April. The agency was taking comments
on an interim Section 4(d) rule that it said
it hoped to finalize by the end of the year
and would eliminate unnecessary regulatory requirements in the bat's habitat

Stephen Robertson (left), executive
vice president of the Permian
Basin Petroleum Association in
Midland, pauses while Bob Warren,
vice president, onshore division,
for the International Association of
Drilling Contractors, checks some
facts on his smart phone prior to
the Liaison Committee meeting,
June 24 in Santa Fe, N.M.

152 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

Peter J. Regan, executive director of the
Domestic Energy Producers Alliance,
reviews the status of lawsuits revolving
around the lesser prairie chicken's "threatened" listing under the Endangered
Species Act and government "sue-andsettle" agreements during the Liaison
Committee session held in conjunction
with the Independent Petroleum Association of America's midyear meeting,
June 24-26 in Santa Fe, N.M.

range (AOGR, May 2015, pg. 20).
In the meantime, Seipel said OOGA
was seeking guidance from USFWS's
Ohio field office. "It is our pipeline companies, especially, that are finding this incredibly challenging," she told Liaison participants. "They think USFWS has taken
a really conservative approach. It really is
up in the air."
Looking ahead, IPAA's McDonald
said USFWS's plan to change the way it
regulated incidental takes under the 1918
Migratory Bird Treaty Act "is the next big
regulatory item we are going to have to focus on."
On May 26, she recalled, the USFWS
published a notice of intent to prepare a
programmatic environmental impact statement to evaluate the potential environmental impacts of a proposal to authorize incidental take on more than 1,000 species
of migratory birds. The notice specifically identified methane or other natural gas
burner pipes at production sites and elsewhere, and open wastewater disposal pits
as problems, along with communication
towers, and power transmission and distribution lines, McDonald pointed out.
"The limited material in the notice is
somewhat concerning. We don't really
know what USFWS's proposal is going to
look like," McDonald worried.
She said the administration's goal was
to complete a rule making before President
Obama's term expired, but "I think that is
going to be very, very difficult, given the
short time frame and general concern from
a myriad of industries-not only oil and
gas."

American Oil and Gas Reporter - August 2015

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