A disturbing photo topped the June 15 New York Times article, supposedly graphic evidence that the Earth is dying, starting with its cutest animals. It is a compelling picture, although the message is as misleading as it is powerful. It shows what the caption describes as “A critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal” apparently washed up on a beach, looking sad and nearly dead. Legally, a species is “endangered” or not; there is no such thing as “critically endangered.” That’s for writers seeking to influence, not inform. It turns out the picture is a decade-old Alamy Internet stock photo, showing a seal at rest on Eternity Beach, basking in the sun as seals love to do.
The headline asks, “Can a Law Protecting Endangered Animals Stop New Oil Drilling?” It’s about using the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to block drilling, which is bewildering in this context, because there is no oil or gas drilling on or near Eternity beach, nor anywhere in Hawaii.
Hawaiian monk seals are actually doing better in recent years. There are now an estimated 1,570 of them, increasing about two percent a year for the last decade. A dedicated team saves injured seals, and carefully documents the causes of any deaths. About 15 have died from toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease, four shot by humans, and a few entangled in fishing gear. Aggressive male seals sometimes kill the pups, and sharks eat them. Not one seal has been killed by oil and gas operations, nor by climate change.
That doesn’t matter to a coalition of environmental industry groups that are suing to stop oil and gas permitting on public lands, claiming the government failed to consider the threat to endangered species from climate change. Remember, President Biden ordered such permitting stopped, but federal courts blocked his order, ruling that presidents have no unilateral power to waive land management laws. So the Center for Biological Diversity and its allies sued, looking for a different court to make a different ruling. It is the latest salvo in a battle with a long history.
The lawsuit argues that oil burned in Missouri, from a well drilled in Wyoming, adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, which heats the planet, destroys coral reefs in Florida, and kills polar bears in Alaska, along with monk seals in Hawaii. They bring polar bears into it again, because that case laid the groundwork, 20 years ago, for this bizarre legal argument. At stake are 3,500 drilling permits issued during the Biden Administration, which the coalition wants revoked.
Various attempts to use international treaties to stop fossil fuel use in the U.S. have failed. So the environmental industry went to plan B, the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the perfect tool for limiting human activities. They proposed twenty years ago to add polar bears to the endangered list, specifically because of global warming. For the first time, that would invoke the ESA to control activities regardless of their location. Anything emitting greenhouse gases could be a threat to the survival of the listed species, whether or not the activity is anywhere near the species. It was a novel strategy. If the polar bear were listed specifically because of global warming, then federal agencies could stop development of power plants, timber harvests, public land grazing permits, coal mine or ski area expansions, oil and gas exploration, airport and highway construction, and many other projects throughout the country. They would not have to be anywhere near polar bear habitat, because any greenhouse gas emission could be shown to contribute to global warming, and thus contribute to the bear’s supposed demise.
Previously, projects had to have a direct impact on a listed species or its habitat to trigger the ESA’s enforcement. But if a species were listed because of global warming, its critical habitat would essentially be the whole world. The strategy worked, and through a series of legal maneuvers the Bush Administration was compelled to add polar bears to the endangered list, because of climate change.
The very day after that decision was announced, the same environmental groups that had petitioned for the listing sued, saying the ESA must be used to regulate greenhouse gas emissions throughout the United States, or else the government had provided inadequate protection for polar bears. That proved from the very beginning that these lawsuits were never really about polar bears, just as today they are not really about Hawaiian monk seals. They are about stopping oil and gas production and America’s use of cheap and abundant energy.
Comments on this entry are closed.