IPAA, other groups sue FWS over American burying beetle delay

Sept. 21, 2017
The Independent Petroleum Association of America, American Stewards of Liberty, and Osage Producers Association have sued the US Fish and Wildlife Service over the agency’s alleged failure to issue a required 12-month finding on a petition to remove the American burying beetle from the endangered species list.

The Independent Petroleum Association of America, American Stewards of Liberty, and Osage Producers Association have sued the US Fish and Wildlife Service over the agency’s alleged failure to issue a required 12-month finding on a petition to remove the American burying beetle from the endangered species list.

Many land development, agriculture, transportation, and pipeline or utility operations have been delayed or restricted because of the listing, according to IPAA. Over the last 20 years in Oklahoma alone, this has cost at least $6.5 million in protection efforts, including $1.3 million that the Oklahoma Department of Transportation spent on conservation actions over 6 years, IPAA said.

The Sept. 21 action in US District Court for Eastern Oklahoma followed IPAA and ASL’s previous filing in February of a notice of intent to sue FWS for not issuing the finding in response to an August 2015 petition they filed with the agency to remove the insect from the list.

“It is time for [FWS] to act on the American burying beetle,” said Daniel T. Naatz, IPAA’s senior vice-president of government relations and political affairs, after the suit was filed. “Since 1989, the beetle’s listing has been met with criticism for failing to provide the science-based evidence that ESA listings warrant. [FWS] has had the time to properly review and act on our petition and it’s time to move forward. The economies and communities impacted by this listing deserve it.”

IPAA said that it, ASL, and other industry and government groups have called for the beetle’s removal from the endangered species list for years. ASL, IPAA, and the Texas Public Policy Foundation have demonstrated that the original listing was in error and was rooted in faulty assumptions about the species’ range, distribution, and abundance, it said.

FWS’s listing shows the beetle occurring in 10 states and listed as endangered in Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and Texas.

“The American burying beetle prospers in Osage County. In 2016, [FWS] reported 57 positive surveys counting 437 American burying beetles,” said James Sicking, an attorney for the Osage Producers Association. “The policies of the service and its Oklahoma field office regarding the American burying beetle are a major impediment to our members’ fulfillment of contractual obligations to produce oil and gas for the benefit of the Osage Indian Headlight Holders and the Mineral Estate in general.”

Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].