In more grizzly bear news…

Wyoming, Montana join legal fight over coal port

Attorneys general in Wyoming, Montana and four other states have filed a joint amicus brief in support of a federal lawsuit that accuses Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s administration of interfering with foreign and interstate trade by denying permits for a coal export terminal in Longview, Washington.

The export terminal would provide Powder River Basin coal a faster, cheaper trip to Asia, but Lighthouse has struggled for six years to secure the right to build along the Columbia River given some environmental concerns by state regulators. Supporters of the port, including the states that filed the amicus brief Tuesday, argue that Washington is not weighing the coal terminal on its own merits, but acting out of an anti-coal sentiment. “The defendants are trying to force on other states their policy preferences regarding the use of coal as a source of fuel, and thus, they are impeding the free flow of commerce,” the brief states.

More from Longview’s The Daily News:

“Governor Inslee has made his ideological opposition to coal abundantly clear over the years, proving pro-coal projects will never get a fair shake by his administration,” Montana Attorney General Tim Fox said in a statement Wednesday. “Fortunately, the law is on our side.” The brief filed Tuesday accuses Inslee, state Department of Ecology Director Maia Bellon and state Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz of having “a long-documented public opposition to fossil fuels, and coal in particular.” By denying permits for the project, Washington is essentially forcing its policy preferences regarding coal on other states, the brief argues. The coal project has suffered a series of setbacks over the past 17 months, including the denial of an aquatic lands sublease by the state Department of Natural Resources in January 2017 and the denial of a water quality certification from Ecology last fall. A Cowlitz County hearing examiner also denied Millennium’s application for a pair of key shoreline permits last September. But a Cowlitz County judge in December overruled DNR’s rejection of the sublease, calling the decision “arbitrary and capricious.” Challenges to the permitting decisions are now at various stages of appeal.

As elk find new ground, Wyoming tweaks wolf hunt

Wolf hunt area boundaries are being redrawn and quotas boosted because the Gros Ventre area’s elk and Whiskey Mountain’s bighorn sheep are shifting their winter ranges. In both cases there’s little evidence wolf predation is driving populations down, but wildlife managers believe wolves are pushing ungulates off high-quality habitat during the hardest time of year.

Wyoming Game and Fish Department wolf biologist Ken Mills said it’s “possible” some specific packs may incur heavy losses due to the changes in the Gros Ventre, but he doesn’t expect any packs to be wiped out. “I don’t think so, not with the pack sizes we have in the Gros Ventre,” Mills said. “One pack might be reduced significantly, but then the other packs around are going to have a much lighter take.” One Jackson conservationist who successfully hunted a Gros Ventre elk last fall said it’s a wrongheaded approach to boost wolf hunt quotas because prey species are adapting to native carnivores’ presence and moving around. “I think we should appreciate that predator and prey interaction on the natural landscape instead of trying to artificially manipulate it,” Sierra Club staffer Lloyd Dorsey said.

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Gros Ventre wolves are seen as a major factor in the Jackson Elk Herd migrating out of a valley that has traditionally been a wintering grounds for several thousand elk. Just 86 wapiti were counted this year, the first year on record there’s been an almost complete exodus. Addressing his commissioners this spring, Game and Fish Deputy Chief of Wildlife Doug Brimeyer said the changes have been “emotional” for his Jackson colleagues, and he encouraged the decision-making board to target more wolves. He intimated that wolves have driven down the Gros Ventre elk population. But other Game and Fish officials say the data is not yet in to make that assertion. “I don’t think we have any strong evidence to say that a lot of elk, or more than normal, have died in the Gros Ventre in the last few years,” Jackson regional wildlife biologist Aly Courtemanch told the News&Guide in March. “And I don’t think we have any evidence that points to a significant population decline up there. We do have evidence that elk are wintering in completely different areas than they used to.”

Top FWS, NPS, and BLM posts remain vacant

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke today predicted that a trio of top posts — directors for the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service — will remain vacant through early 2019, more than two years into President Trump’s first term.

Zinke made the remarks while testifying before the Senate Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee about his agency’s proposed $11.7 billion fiscal 2019 budget. “I was talking to the ranking member,” Zinke said, referring to New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall (D). “It reminded me when his father [Stewart Udall] was the secretary of the Interior, he had everybody — his complete staff — in place, in the seats in two weeks.” He added, “It is unlikely as a secretary that I will have a director of the Park Service, a director of BLM, and a director of the Fish and Wildlife Service by two years in.” The Trump administration has not nominated anyone to fill any of the three slots.

Energy, climate, and the myth of job ‘creation’

Jacques Leslie points out the flaws in a curious ritual of American politics: Whenever a large energy project is proposed, the ensuing debate revolves chiefly around how many jobs it will create.