Wackos Pit Energy Industry Against Conservationists in Colorado

[CG6468]

New Flower Species Protections Pit Energy Industry Against Conservationists in Colorado

By Kelly David Burke

Published August 17, 2011

The recent placing of three Colorado wildflowers on the federal endangered and threatened species lists will make it harder to exploit untapped fuel resources in the Rocky Mountain State, a group representing the energy industry tells Fox News, an assertion the government denies.

“What we're seeing here is the federal government coming in and adding another layer of regulation,” says Kathleen Sgamma, director of government and public affairs at Western Energy Alliance. Regulators are “saying we don't care about ... what the states are doing and what industry and nonprofit groups are doing to protect those species.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has listed the Pagosa skyrocket as endangered. The other two flowers, the Parachute beardtongue and the DeBeque phacelia, are listed as threatened. The latter two grow only in northwestern Colorado, which is also home to the 200-square-mile Roan Plateau atop massive reserves of natural gas, as well as oil in the form of oil shale.

(snip)

Sgamma also charges that listings of these flowers are based on bad science provided by an environmental group whose intent is to slow or stop energy development at all costs.

Fish and Wildlife’s Glenne denies this is the case.

“We obviously try to be as unbiased as we possibly can. These are unique species. They have been looked at extensively by taxonomic experts," she said. "Our goal with all of these species is to get them protected and recovered to a point where they no longer need listing.”

Tree huggers save two weeds

[JohnnyReb]

Roundup*....problem solved.