Global warming, climate change, all these things are just a dream come true for politicians. I deal with evidence and not with frightening computer models because the seeker after truth does not put his faith in any consensus. The road to the truth is long and hard, but this is the road we must follow. People who describe the unprecedented comfort and ease of modern life as a climate disaster, in my opinion have no idea what a real problem is.
In Episode 399 of District of Conservation, Gabriella discusses her recent ALEC Summit speech on natural asset companies, fishing in Arizona’s Salt River, previews CSF NASC podcast interviews, and discusses the USFWS’s proposed rule to list the Lower-48 wolverine on the Endangered Species Act with threatened protections on climate change, not population, grounds. Tune in to learn more.
“Basing this determination on climate modeling and projections that have been consistently inaccurate over decades does not meet the standard of “likely” or even probable at this stage. The North American population of wolverines shares genetic roots with the first wolverines that crossed the Bering Strait— wolverines have demonstrated remarkable resilience, surviving and adapting to various climate fluctuations, including the ice age and other periods of extreme climate change. This longstanding presence in North America underscores the wolverine’s ability to endure and adapt. It is wrong to base an ESA determination on unreliable climate predictions for any species, but especially for one that has proven to be so climate resilient.” — Letter from Senator Steve Daines & Rep. Zinke and Rosendale
In Episode 399 of District of Conservation, Gabriella discusses her recent ALEC Summit speech on natural asset companies, fishing in Arizona’s Salt River, previews CSF NASC podcast interviews, and discusses the USFWS’s proposed rule to list the Lower-48 wolverine on the Endangered Species Act with threatened protections on climate change, not population, grounds. Tune in to learn more.
In Episode 579 of District of Conservation, Gabriella discusses the permitting reform bill – aka BAAJA – that is gaining traction in Congress now. The Senate will hold a cloture vote starting at 3:30pm ET in a motion to proceed. Gabriella discusses the status quo without permitting reform, how BAAJA is good for the environment and affordability. Tune in!SHOW NOTESBipartisan Policy Center: BAAJA ExplainerEstimating the US Energy System Impacts of the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act
Officials at the Department of Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) are within weeks of deciding whether to list a small, light-brown lizard as either threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Sceloporus undulatus, Lookout Mountain Trail on the northeast side of Glenwood Springs, 39.551 -107.314, Garfield County, Colorado, 15 Jun 2008.
Officials at the Department of Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) are within weeks of deciding whether to list a small, light-brown lizard as either threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
The dunes sagebrush lizard was proposed for listing under the ESA in late June, giving the public 60 days to submit comments to the FWS. Swamped by comments opposed to the listing, the FWS extended the comment period for an additional 30 days, until Oct. 2. In 2018, the Center for Biological Diversity CBD) petitioned the FWS to add the lizard to the endangered species list, and – after five years of study and bureaucratic inertia – a final decision is expected this fall.
As fate would have it, the lizard’s habitat in southeastern New Mexico and West Texas overlaps with the Permian Basin, home to America’s most productive oil and gas fields. The Permian Basin produces up to 5.8 million barrels of oil per day and has a sizeable impact on the economies of both states.
Fearful that an ESA listing for the lizard would impose strict land-use restrictions on the area, the oil and gas industry, joined by cattle ranchers, has argued that voluntary community conservation efforts to protect the creature are more effective than the heavy hand of the ESA.
In comments submitted Aug. 25 to the FWS, Tim Tarpley, president of the Energy Workforce and Technology Council, said the listing would impede planning and cause delays for the energy sector., without benefiting the lizard. The council represents 250 companies and over 600,00 workers, he noted.
Voluntary Conservation Agreements
Tarpley also pointed out that about 1.9 million acres of land in New Mexico are enrolled in what are known as candidate conservation agreements, under which landowners undertake certain practices that protect the lizard’s habitat, obviating the need for ESA-style land-use restrictions.
“While the Sagebrush Lizard favors the welcoming landscape of Texas and New Mexico, this same habitat plays home to our nation’s most critical oil and gas developments,” he said in his comments (CarlsbadCurrent Argus, Sept. 12). “Under these agreements, the industry has voluntarily committed to implementing practices that reduce or even remove threats to the lizard.”
“Placement of the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard on the endangered species list will further reduce production and development opportunities across our robust energy industry jobs in the region and infringe on property rights,” Tarpley added.
Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, voiced similar concerns in her Aug. 4 comments to the FWS.
“The proposed Rule stands to have a significant impact on Alliance members’ business planning and operations by increasing operational costs, delaying project timeframes, and limiting or precluding operations in certain areas.”
The New Mexico Cattle Growers Association also urged the FWS to forego a listing, citing its effect on agriculture.
“Given the extensive work that has been done to protect this species in this state and the effectiveness those actions have had, it would be improper to list the dunes sagebrush lizard as threatened or endangered in New Mexico,” Loren Patterson, the association’s president, wrote in his comments, as reported by the Carlsbad Current Argus.
Adult dunes sagebrush lizards are about 2.5 inches long and spend their lives in the region’s low-lying shinney oak shrubs, where they hunt insects and spiders and have some protection from the weather and predators. Their habitat is the second-smallest of any lizard species in North America.
“We won’t stand by while the last dunes sagebrush lizards disappear,” said the Center for Biological Diversity’s Michael Robinson in a statement last year. “Even as the oil and gas industry ruins our climate, it’s also destroying the lizard’s last home. Protection under the Endangered Species Act is this unique animal’s last hope.”
The Center for Biological Diversity may just get its way. Biden administration appointees at the FWS are every bit as hostile to the oil and gas industry and cattle ranchers as is the CBD. Adding the lizard to the endangered species list will reduce fossil-fuel production in the Permian Basin, something both want.
Bonner R. Cohen, Ph. D., is a senior policy analyst with CFACT, where he focuses on natural resources, energy, property rights, and geopolitical developments. Articles by Dr. Cohen have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Investor’s Busines Daily, The New York Post, The Washington Examiner, The Washington Times, The Hill, The Epoch Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Miami Herald, and dozens of other newspapers around the country.
He has been interviewed on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, NBC News, NPR, BBC, BBC Worldwide Television, N24 (German-language news network), and scores of radio stations in the U.S. and Canada.
He has testified before the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, and the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee. Dr. Cohen has addressed conferences in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Bangladesh.
He has a B.A. from the University of Georgia and a Ph. D. – summa cum laude – from the University of Munich.
Temperatures are sizzling across Europe this week amid an intense and prolonged period of heat. And it’s only just begun. Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Poland are all facing a major heatwave with air temperatures expected to climb to 48°C on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia – potentially the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Europe.”
The original ESA report continued, only later specifying that it was in fact referring to surface temperature (emphasis added):
The animation below uses data from the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission’s radiometer instrument and shows the land surface temperature across Italy between 9 and 10 July. As the image clearly shows, in some cities the surface of the land exceeded 45°C, including Rome, Naples, Taranto and Foggia. Along the east slopes of Mount Etna in Sicily, many temperatures were recorded as over 50°C.”
Meant here were not the standard temperatures recorded at 2 meters above ground level that we always here in daily weather reports, which are much cooler, but rather those right at the ground surface. That crucial difference went totally unnoticed by media and journalists, who reported of new record high temperatures. By the time the ploy was exposed by careful readers, the news had already gone around the world.
Yesterday, the ESA issued a (vague) clarification explaining the difference between surface and air temperature at 2 meters above ground, yet continued to mislead:
Land surface temperature is how hot the ‘surface’ of Earth feels to the touch. Air temperature, given in our daily weather forecasts, is a measure of how hot the air is above the ground.”
The ESA did not bother to mention how the surface temperature is much hotter than the 2 meter air temperature.
“Most intense climate lie”
“What we experienced over the past days was most intense climate lie since temperature recording began,” reported Germany’s Achtung Reichelt here on the implications of the ESA’s sloppy, manipulative press release and the media firestorm that ensued: “The problem with that report is that none of it is true.”
In Sicily the temperature reached only 32°C over the weekend – a far cry from 48°C, which illustrates the great difference between ground surface temperature and readings taken 2 meters above the ground.
Once the trickery was exposed, Spiegel quietly changed the wording in its July 14 report:
Spiegel changed the text (left) from 48°C with “many heat deaths” over to (right): “48°C …but that the measurements were not the usual air temperature – which can be considerably lower.”
It’s clear that the authorities and media tries to pull a fast one on the public, but were caught again thanks to careful readers.
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