Interior Secretary Sally Jewell was pretty adamant this week that the feds would base their decision to list the sage grouse as endangered on scientific facts.
Problem is, the government is being stingy in sharing the science. Because transparency. And what they have bothered to share with the public, after relenting on Freedom of Information demands, has been biased research or flat out false.
Valerie Richardson reports in the Washington Times that Denver lawyer Kent Holsinger and a coalition of ranchers, miners and energy industry folks from Colorado and other western states have filed challenges to the government’s secret-keeping mission.
“We’ve documented real issues with transparency and scientific integrity,” said Mr. Holsinger in a statement.
He cited “extensive flaws in the agencies’ science,” saying the data demonstrate that federal agencies “exaggerate impacts from human activities while ignoring real threats like predation as well as natural fluctuations.”
“The steadfast reliance and perpetuation of flawed information reveals these agencies aren’t as much interested in sage-grouse conservation as they are in controlling our economy and Western way of life,” Mr. Holsinger said.
True that.
Listing plants and animals on the endangered species list has become the preferred method of greenies to block energy and other natural resource development on public lands throughout the West.
A population of a half-million Greater Sage Grouse is not exactly what we would consider close to extinction.
Nevertheless, federal pencil pushers are chomping at their erasers to find a reason to blame humans for their near-extinction and add the grouse to the Endangered Species List by September.