Description: Challenge to listing of lesser prairie chicken as a threatened species.
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Permian Basin Petroleum Association v. United States Department of the Interior
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 05/10/2016 Motion Download Federal defendants-appellants filed unopposed motion to voluntarily dismiss appeal. Federal Government Withdrew Appeal of District Court Decision That Vacated Listing of Lesser Prairie Chicken as Threatened Species. The United States Department of the Interior and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) moved to voluntarily withdraw their appeal of a Texas federal district court decision that vacated the FWS’s listing of the lesser prairie chicken as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The district court found that the listing was arbitrary and capricious. One of the numerous aspects of the listing determination that the district court found to be arbitrary and capricious was the FWS’s “critical assumption” that a plan implemented by five states to protect the lesser prairie chicken’s habitat and range did not address the threat of drought and climate change. The court said that this assumption might have tainted FWS’s assessment. -
Permian Basin Petroleum Association v. Department of the Interior
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 02/29/2016 Order Download Order issued denying defendants' motion to amend the judgment. 09/01/2015 Order Download Order issued granting plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment and order issued granting in part and denying in part defendants' motion for summary judgment. Federal Court Vacated Listing of Lesser Prairie Chicken as Threatened, Downplayed Climate Change as Factor for Assessing Conservation Plan. The federal district court for the Western District of Texas vacated the listing of the lesser prairie chicken as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The court said that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) had not properly followed its own Policy for Evaluation of Conservation Efforts When Making Listing Decisions (PECE) when it considered a rangewide plan (RWP) implemented by five states to protect the lesser prairie chicken’s habitat and range. Under the plan voluntary private participants, including oil and gas companies, fund conservation efforts. The court said FWS improperly interpreted and applied the PECE “in a cursory and conclusory manner.” One of the numerous findings in which the court grounded its determination that the FWS had acted arbitrarily and capriciously was a finding that FWS made a “critical assumption” that the RWP did not address the threat of drought and climate change, and that this assumption might have tainted FWS’s assessment of whether the RWP described threats to the species and how the conservation plan reduced those threats. The court said that FWS’s assumption “fail[ed] to adequately account for the main function of the RWP: creating additional habitat and access to that habitat (through connectivity zones) to ameliorate the effects of drought and habitat fragmentation.”