Climate and Wildlife Initiative
Western Solutions for Wildlife, Energy, and Wildland Challenges
In the West, both climate change and irresponsible energy development are startlingly visible. The past environmental damages and the current impacts of poorly planned and implemented traditional oil and gas development are evidenced by degraded landscapes and declining populations of many wildlife species. Fossil fuels cause near-term damage to the environment during extraction. Substantial long-term climate impacts also result from the carbon emitted from heat production, electricity generation, and vehicular movement that often requires new roads. Wildlife is suffering the consequences.
The West's landscapes are changing. Any trip to the West's stunning high country will leave a visitor saddened by the massive loss of pine trees to beetles that are thriving because the winters are no longer cold enough to kill them. Other climate change impacts include prolonged drought and changes in snow melt, which have severe impacts to habitat and wildlife. Adding near-term injury to the cumulative impacts of a changing climate is the fact that these forests are increasingly threatened by oil and gas development as companies expand drilling from lower-elevation lands into mid- and higher-elevation lands. The direct fragmentation and other impacts of that expansion further stress already compromised forest ecosystems.
Sagebrush, grassland, and desert ecosystems are at the apex of the climate, energy, and wildlife dilemma facing the West. The sagebrush steppe ecosystem spans much of the northern part of the West, including Colorado and Wyoming. Unless the impacts of climate change are curtailed, much of the Sagebrush Sea will be lost and will likely be replaced by exotic weed species with minimal habitat value. The Greater Sage-Grouse is an umbrella species for much of the impressive biodiversity in this ecosystem, which also is home to over 250 vertebrate species and 40 sensitive species of concern. The Greater Sage-Grouse is already so threatened by the development of fossil fuels, such as oil and gas, that it was determined by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to be warranted for listing under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Similar ecological relationships and threats exist for grasslands from Canada to New Mexico. Although prairie-chickens once characterized this beautiful ecosystem, the Lesser Prairie-Chicken is now also warranted for federal listing. Importantly, a strategic focus on grouse and prairie-chickens will also conserve many other sensitive species and their habitats now and into the future.
We must also simultaneously address the near-term threats of fossil fuel developments, including oil shale and tar sands, and the longer-term threats of climate changes. Although the West's transition to a clean energy economy holds hope for the climate, if renewable energy generation and transmission projects are poorly planned and implemented, they could further threaten sensitive forest species, sage-grouse, prairie-chickens, and even game species such as pronghorn.
WRA is reducing the threats of traditional energy development and guiding clean energy solutions. We seek a future for the West that is sustainable, not just for people, but for treasured wildlife and hallmark lands. Although we know that it will take a global response to mitigate climate change, the CWP can play an essential role by motivating leadership and guiding actions at the local, state, and regional levels.
The project will encompass the Rocky Mountain states, including the Southwest with its unique opportunities and biological challenges. The CWP will:
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions from energy development and use.
Minimize current impacts of energy development on wildlife and wildlands.
Minimize future impacts of climate change on wildlife and wildlands.
The figure below illustrates the principal CWP actions and benefits. WRA is one of the few environmental organizations advocating for renewable energy, responsible transmission, and protection of our national, natural treasures.
Goals and Activities
Goal 1: Provide Clean Energy Solutions to Minimize Impacts of Climate Change
- Replace dirty energy sources with clean ones.
- Develop a comprehensive vision to meet western energy demands that will lead to 80% reductions of 2005 levels of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
- Provide clean energy solutions to public utility commission resource planning and transmission dockets, state transmission build-out efforts, and state energy offices.
- Coordinate and lead the activities and strategies of key clean energy advocates across the Interior West and Southwest.
- Advocate for environmentally responsible renewable energy projects and transmission lines.
- Facilitate transmission expansion to connect renewable energy sources that have little or no access to transmission.
- Advocate for reducing future load demands through efficiency and non-wires generation.
- Participate in Western Electricity Coordinating Council regional and subregional planning forums. WRA will continue to provide leadership on the multi-constituency Scenario Planning Steering Group (SPSG) required by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Department of Energy to guide key phases of environmentally responsible regional transmission planning.
- Lead SPSG efforts to identify and use wildlife, wildlands, and water data for improved transmission planning and decision making.
- Identify and support smart renewable energy transmission projects in strategic locations, including conducting campaigns to improve appropriately sited renewable energy transmission line proposals. Priority projects on which WRA will lead or collaborate with equal partners include SunZia (New Mexico and Arizona), High Plains Express (Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico), Gateway West (Wyoming, Idaho), TransWest Express (Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada), San Luis Valley (Colorado), Nevada OnLine (Nevada), MSTI (Montana, Idaho), and others.
Goal 2: Protect Wildlands, Wildlife, and Water from Energy and Climate Change Impacts
- Provide guidance for protecting natural and cultural resources during clean energy development to public utility commission resource planning and transmission dockets, state transmission build-out efforts, and state energy offices.
- Develop and implement adaptation policies and strategies to minimize impacts of climate change.
- With a focus on the sagebrush ecosystem and in partnership with other organizations, develop and implement plans for place-based adaptation strategies (such as wildlife corridors that function across landscapes and time) to protect ecosystems and wildlife populations from anticipated changes in habitat geography.
- Partner with other organizations to promote state and federal laws and policies that provide adequate connectivity to build resiliency on the landscape, as well as facilitate dispersal of wildlife into suitable locations as existing habitats become unsuitable through climatic changes.
- Advocate for appropriate funding through climate bills and other appropriations, bills, and administrative processes to research climate change impacts on wildlife habitats and implement appropriate adaptation strategies.
- Participate with agency, university, and research lab planning and research efforts for climate adaption strategies.
- Promote clean energy development and improve management of conventional energy development to protect wildlife, especially open lands species of grouse and desert endangered species, which are highly sensitive to disturbances from unacceptable population declines.
- Through oil and gas rule-making venues, expand state regulatory protections, such as those in Colorado and Wyoming, for grouse, prairie-chickens, and other wildlife throughout the region.
- Advocate regulatory protections through state public utility commissions for grouse, prairie-chickens, and other wildlife.
- Monitor the sale/leases of public land parcels for energy development, transport, and transmission, and protest transactions that would threaten the sustainability of grouse populations.
- Help develop resource management plans with required stipulations, conditions, and management designations that protect the systems and species.
- Respond with legal action, as necessary, to governmental decisions that threaten grouse populations within core areas.
- Advocate for formal recognition and protection of grouse and prairie-chicken core areas in resource management plans.
This exciting new WRA program will further integrate the Energy, Lands, and Water programs. The CWP will strengthen our Energy Program by upholding our leading role on responsible regional renewable energy transmission and generation planning and by developing best management practices for transmission. It will fortify the Lands Program by enhancing the on-the-ground capacity and geographic breadth for a program already well-established as an effective wildland and wildlife guardian against damaging energy development and misguided governmental practices. It will complement the Water Program by making sure that use of, and impacts to, water resources are considered when planning energy generation and transmission.