On October 5, APGA submitted a letter to the Protected Resources Division of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in response to the proposed expansion of the critical habitat designation for the Rice’s whale.
APGA’s membership is directly and indirectly affected by this NMFS Proposal due to the negative impacts it could have on natural gas extraction. NMFS wants to designate a critical habitat for the Rice’s whale stretching from the panhandle region of Florida across a 100- to 400-meter diagonal strip through the entire Gulf of Mexico adjoining the Texas-Mexico border, which will likely cause operational restrictions, vessel traffic implications, and other limitations, leading to negative impacts on the development of energy.
The NMFS’s work to protect endangered species is extremely important, however, this specific critical habitat designation has very little scientific backing and could jeopardize the balance between species protection and responsible economic development and recreational use.
APGA’s letter urges NMFS to conduct more research to better understand the Rice’s whales and see if this area is indeed a critical habitat. APGA worked with our partner, the Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA), in developing this input.
To see the letter, click here.
APGA continues to work on this issue and will inform members of any progress on this proposal. For questions on this article, please contact Sydney Freed of APGA staff by phone at 202-464-0834 or by email at sfreed@apga.org.