Energy industry, conservationists floating ?habitat exchange? plan for prairie chicken population

Courtesy of the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism

A new proposal aims to create a free-market solution that would focus on prairie chicken habitat conservation while at the same time still allowing oil and gas activity to continue.?

As oil and gas drilling and wind-farm construction activity continue to increase throughout the Midwest, concerns about the effects on grassland birds also are growing.

In this case, the concern lies with the lesser prairie chicken, a native bird that is about the size of a football and whose habitat spans portions of five states, including Kansas.

The fear is that the bird?s habitat is shrinking and will continue to get smaller as oil and gas operators continue to purse drilling activity under grasslands where the birds like to nest. There are also concerns about the effects the presence of wind farms have on the habitat of the prairie chicken. The federal government is considering classifying the prairie chicken as a threatened or endangered species. However, a new proposal aims to create a free-market solution that would focus on habitat conservation while at the same time still allowing oil and gas activity to continue.

The plan, quietly in the works for several months, would basically create a ?habitat exchange? where ranchers would get credits for habitat-conservation efforts, such as letting land revert to grassland, that could in turn be sold to oil and gas companies wanting to drill in other areas.

The plan, further detailed in this Wall Street Journal report, would require oil and gas companies to buy those credits at auctions whenever they wanted to drill new wells or build roads.

So far, the plan has the support of some of the country?s largest oil and gas companies, like Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHP), according to the Wall Street Journal report.

The habitat exchange plan would have to be approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Josh Heck covers health care, legal services, professional services and education.

Source: http://feeds.bizjournals.com/~r/wichita_blog/~3/HNchL_RwF10/energy-industry-conservationists.html

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