Acting Interior Secretary expected to weaken conservation plans, helping former clients
DENVER—A new analysis from the Center for Western Priorities found that oil and gas companies with ties to Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt own 20 percent of all federal oil and gas leases that overlap with sage-grouse habitat in five Western states.
The Interior Department is expected to announced its final Records of Decision on the sage-grouse as soon as tomorrow, solidifying Bernhardt’s re-writeof landmark conservation plans reached just four years ago between the Interior Department, Western governors, ranchers, industry, and conservationists. The Bernhardt revisions strip key protections for the bird and allow more oil and gas development in grouse habitat, a move that could lead to the grouse being listed under the Endangered Species Act.
CWP’s analysis looked at oil and gas leases that intersect with sage-grouse habitat in Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. 20.4 percent of those leases were owned by companies or subsidiaries which David Bernhardt represented directly as a lawyer or lobbyist, or sat on the board of the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), a trade association that Bernhardt represented.
“This map shows why David Bernhardt was too conflicted to work on anything related to sage-grouse at the Interior Department,” said Jesse Prentice-Dunn, policy director at the Center for Western Priorities. “But earlier this month, Bernhardt admitted that he was working on these plans from his very first day back at Interior.”
The IPAA, Bernhardt’s former client, submitted formal comments requesting specific policy changes on the sage-grouse. Many of those recommendations, such as cutting requirements that oil companies offset habitat damage by paying for conservation work elsewhere, were accepted partially or in full as part of the proposals released in December.
A previous analysis by the Center for Western Priorities found the Interior Department has moved ahead with at least 19 policy actions supported or requested by 16 of Bernhardt’s former clients. Those actions include eliminating fracking safety rules and stopping almost all enforcement against companies that violate the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
Methodology
The Center for Western Priorities analyzed publicly-available data in the Bureau of Land Management’s LR2000 database, first identifying authorized oil and gas leases in Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming, then determining which leases intersected with sage-grouse habitat, as identified by the Bureau of Land Management. Applicable leases were then filtered by developer to determine which leases were owned by companies, and their subsidiaries, linked to Acting Interior Secretary Bernhardt. These include former clients, as identified by ethics recusals, financial disclosures, and lobbying records, as well as companies that sit on the Board of Directors of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, a major oil and gas trade association that was a Bernhardt client. The resulting data was refined to remove duplicate leases.
The full dataset and GIS shapefiles are available to reporters on request. Jesse Prentice-Dunn is available for video and audio interviews.