Chairman Capito Participates in EPW Fisheries, Water, and Wildlife Subcommittee Hearing on Endangered Species Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, participated in an EPW Fisheries, Water, and Wildlife Subcommittee hearing examining the challenges and opportunities with implementing the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

During the hearing, Chairman Capito asked witnesses about the increased role that states could play in protecting endangered species rather than relying on federal support. She also asked witnesses about the listing of species who are suffering from natural causes and not any man-made environment. Finally, she questioned the witnesses about the varying ways the ESA is implemented across different regions of the country.

HIGHLIGHTS:

ROLE OF STATES IN ESA IMPLEMENTATION

Chairman Capito:

"Certainly, coming from a state like West Virginia, we're very, as every state is, familiar with the Endangered Species Act and some of the pluses and some of the minuses. Because, in some cases, the ESA has, at times, been used to unnecessarily slow down progress, particularly in our timbering and our energy industries […] and actually some of our construction on our highways going through the mountains. […] And so those impacts are felt everywhere. […] It seems like there's a lot of agreement on the panel on directions that can make for improvements […] I am curious to know, I think, Mr. Yablonski, you mentioned that the states could play maybe a bigger role here. Could you elaborate on that a little bit in what kind of capacities […]?"

Brian Yablonski, Chief Executive Officer of Property and Environmental Research Center:

"I'm a former state wildlife chairman in Florida, so I'm a little partial to states being able to manage wildlife. There's something like 200,000 species, domestic species, in North America. The states probably manage 99% of those species, and they do it pretty well. But I think there's another provision in the ESA under Section 6 that allows for ESA cooperative agreements that could be used more robustly, and, essentially, think of it as how we delegate authority under Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act. […] Within the statute, it lays out, sort of, five requirements that the states would have to hit in order for the Fish and Wildlife Service to shift management of species, oversight of species, take permitting of species to the states. And I think in a state like Florida, all five of those are very doable. Some of those are like habitat acquisition programs and public process and an agency to actually do this."

Chairman Capito:

"Why do you think that's not occurring? […] Is there a lack of trust? That the states don't have the capacity, or they're not going to oversee properly? Why is it still so federalized?"

Brian Yablonski, Chief Executive Officer of Property and Environmental Research Center:

"Yeah, I would say part of it is a mindset at the agency itself. It's hard to just kind of shift something directly back to the states. The other is litigation. We actually tried this in Florida in 2012. And the service at that time, under President Obama, actually agreed to do it, but the state of Florida was sued. The agency was sued right away, and Florida ended up backing off of it because of the litigation."

PROTECTION OF DISEASED SPECIES

Chairman Capito:

"You know, one thing I've always been curious about…the [northern long-eared bat] - it has a white-nose syndrome. It has an illness that's making this species die out. Yet it is on a list, so you have to watch it. How do you see that as conflicting, when you have a species that has an inherent disease that's killing it, and it has nothing to do with the development around it or the environment or the habitat or any kind of activity. How do we balance that? Because this has been an issue for us."

Jake Li, Vice President of Conservation Policy at Defenders of Wildlife:

"Thank you for that question, Senator Capito. Actually, this is very close to me because one of the last things I did at the Fish and Wildlife Service was to sign a policy that gives flexibility in that very situation. The example there is that we know the northern long-eared bat and many other bat species are listed because of white-nose syndrome. If it weren't for white-nose syndrome, they wouldn't be on the list at all. So, the policy we signed was actually to allow, in this case, wind energy companies to fund mitigation measures for white-nose syndrome as a way to meet the ESA requirements for mortality from wind turbines. So that's an example of flexibility because you're actually funding the most important needs of the species, i.e. white-nose syndrome, even though your take is actually from something completely different, which is wind turbine operations. So that gives a lot more flexibility to energy companies."

Chairman Capito:

"[…] I think there has to be some flexibility here. Because in the end, if the bat is still suffering from a terminal disease, […] the numbers are going to go down, whether it's getting hit by a windmill or not. I've always kind of wondered about that. How do you solve that problem? I'm sure if we went back 200,000 years ago, there's species that are no longer here because of the evolutionary nature of life."

ENFORCEMENT ACROSS STATES

Chairman Capito:

"I'm going to ask, […] what do you see in terms of differences as we go [across the country]? Just really generally, is there a big difference in terms of looking at species, comparing the East [Coast], Midwest, or West [Coast]? Because I've always thought it's more of an issue out West. Maybe it's because there are more federal lands. Does anybody have an answer to that?"

Brian Yablonski, Chief Executive Officer of Property and Environmental Research Center:

"I think it's interesting that one of the commonalities are large, charismatic species. Whether I was in Florida dealing with Florida panther and manatee, [I] woke up the next day and was dealing with grizzly bears and wolves out in Montana. They tend to get all the attention and suck the oxygen out of the room. But it also drains a lot of the resources of the agency where some of these species should be coming off [the] list, and we should be putting resources toward other species that really need it."

Click HERE to view Chairman Capito's questions.

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