The GPA has filed comments with the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in response to its proposal to create a species specific rule under the authority of second 4(d) of the Endangered Species Act. The rule provides flexibility for regulators and is used to tailor the take provisions of the Endangered Species Act to apply to those actions most important for conservation of the species and exempt other actions.
GPA members have extensive natural gas and NGL operations in the Northern Long Eared Bat habitat area and will be directly impacted from this proposed rule. The GPA believes the current 4(d) proposed rule’s exemptions are too narrowly focused and should be expanded to include oil and gas activities.
Mark Sutton, President and CEO of the GPA said, “we truly appreciate FWS going down the path of a 4(d) proposed rule that we asked for in our previous comments on the Northern Long Eared Bat, but because our industry has such a small footprint, we want FWS to broaden their unnecessarily narrow exemption to include midstream operations.”
FWS is expected to make a Northern Long Eared Bat designation announcement on April 2.
Edited from press release by Claira Lloyd