WASHINGTON _ The Trump administration is seeking to downgrade Endangered Species Act protections for a 1-inch beetle that has confounded oil pipelines and drilling in Oklahoma and Nebraska.
The Fish and Wildlife Service's proposal to lower the American burying beetle's classification from "endangered" to "threatened" follows a review of the insect's status and years of lobbying by the oil industry to strip its protections. The agency is also proposing a narrower suite of protections it says are tailored "to only those the beetle needs for recovery."
Based on a "thorough review of the best available information," the American burying beetle is "not currently at risk of extinction," and therefore does not warrant the endangered species classification, said Jonna Polk, an Oklahoma field supervisor for the agency.
Known as nature's undertakers, the shiny black-and-orange burying beetles are short-lived scavengers that come out at night to sniff out dead field mice, pigeons and other small animals. They uniquely co-parent their offspring by burying the animal carcasses in underground nests _ after first stripping the animals of feathers and fur and then shaping the creatures into balls. The beetles then excavate the ground under the animals, lay eggs next to that carrion and use that meat to nourish their broods _ even forgoing mating to prioritize the needs of their young.
The beetle's range once spread across at least 35 states but had dwindled to just two locations _ Oklahoma and Block Island near Rhode Island _ by 1989, when it was classified as endangered. Now, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says nine states are home to the beetle: Arkansas, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota and Texas.
Critics say the beetle's endangered status has forced developers to employ mitigation efforts that boost project costs. The insect's presence among Oklahoma oil fields has prompted project delays and restrictions, spurring at least $6.5 million in protection efforts, according to the Independent Petroleum Association of America.
For years, companies were required to bait and trap beetles before building pipelines, constructing roads or launching drilling in the insect's path. For instance, in its bid to build the Keystone XL pipeline across Nebraska, TransCanada Corp. previously committed to trapping and relocating the beetles, a plan reliant on using pungent rat carcasses to lure them out.
Developers now have other options for blunting the impacts of their projects, such as by buying offsetting credits from conservation banks protecting several thousand acres in Oklahoma.
The oil industry has pressured the federal government to ease protections for the burying beetle, arguing the initial endangered classification was flawed and the insect's range has dramatically expanded. The Independent Petroleum Association of America and other groups filed a lawsuit against the Fish and Wildlife Service in September 2017, arguing the agency had dragged its feet in considering a petition to completely delist the beetle.
Kinder Morgan Inc. executives also previously sought to talk to former Environmental Protection Agency Chief Scott Pruitt about the beetle, according to correspondence released by the agency in 2018.
