Abuse of the ESA in the Oil and Gas Industry

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) was signed into law forty years ago with only good intentions.

Those intentions, of course, were to protect fragile species from becoming extinct as a result of economic growth and development. There is no doubting that the cause is a noble one. What President Nixon probably didn’t realize at the time was that the ESA would eventually be abused to pursue an anti-industry agenda.

The act is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for freshwater and onshore species. In order to have a species “listed”, a group can petition the Fish and Wildlife Service. What environmentalists have found is that they can halt oil and gas production by petitioning to have species listed based on geographical targeting of high-production areas.

In years past, the ESA has been leveraged to prevent cattle ranching, usage of natural water sources, and of course oil and gas production.  In the latest instance of this strategy, environmentalists petitioned to have the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard listed. Had they succeeded, they would have stopped virtually all of the oil and gas drilling in a huge portion of the western U.S., which of course was the intent.

In a major victory for the oil and gas industry, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently withdrew their initial proposal to list the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard under the Endangered Species Act.

As Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar said, “The voluntary conservation efforts of Texas and New Mexico, oil and gas operators, private landowners and other stakeholders show that we don’t have to choose between energy development and the protection of our land and wildlife – we can do both.”

This close call is a prime example of how there is a constant battle to increase regulations in the oil and gas industry, a point that I have been emphasizing in recent blog posts. Regulatory compliance is becoming more and more critical for industry professionals. Specifically, regulatory change management is always something to be thinking about. Regulatory compliance software like predict360 is the best way to be proactive with compliance policies and procedures in any organization.