7-30-10 Elko Daily Free Press

Ruby Pipeline wins final approval

ELY — The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Friday issued the final go-ahead to El Paso Corp. for the 680-mile Ruby Pipeline that will go through Elko County on its way from Wyoming to Oregon.

"I imagine by Monday you'll see hundreds of people out there starting to work on this," Mark Mackiewicz, manager of the pipeline project for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, told The Associated Press Friday.

According to the order, the BLM must still approve activities on federal lands, but the BLM earlier approved rights of way for the project.

The order to proceed with construction came the same day as the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit in federal court in San Francisco against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the pipeline.

The center's lawsuit follows within days a request it filed with FERC asking the commission to stop the project because it affects crucial habitat for endangered fish species.

Also Friday, the Nevada Legislative Committee on Public Lands voted to ask Nevada's congressional delegation to block any changes to the Taylor Grazing Act that would allow retirement of grazing permits.

The worry over grazing permits is an offshoot of an agreement El Paso made with two environmental organizations.

"There was unanimous support. It was a slam dunk. They were very convinced we got screwed," panel Chairman Sen. Dean Rhoads, R-Tuscarora, said Friday evening after the Ely meeting.

The panel will send letters to lawmakers, Gov. Jim Gibbons, Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar and U.S. Bureau of Land Management Director Bob Abbey, and ask the Nevada Legislature for a resolution.

The vote came hours after the panel put representatives of El Paso Corp. on the hot seat over the company's $20 million deal with Western Watersheds Project and the Oregon Natural Desert Foundation, which in turn dropped protests against El Paso's Ruby Pipeline.

"We want to know why the livestock industry was not consulted," Rhoads told William Healy Jr., vice president of Ruby Pipeline Engineering, and Craig Richardson, vice president and general counsel for El Paso Corp. Pipeline Group.

El Paso responds

Richardson said El Paso has been a neighbor to ranchers for 100 years but failed in this case. He emphasized that "El Paso's agenda is not Western Watershed's agenda," and the company doesn't want to change the Taylor Grazing Act.

Under the law, grazing permits can't be retired. The government must offer permits to other livestock growers if one is vacant for two years.

Richardson said El Paso thought establishing the funds over a 10-year period would result in projects to protect the sage grouse and pygmy rabbit, and would be a good thing.

Western Watersheds and the Oregon group, however, pointed out in their announcements on the agreement that the funds could be used to buy grazing permits from willing sellers and retire them, if Congress changes the law to allow permit retirement.

"We hear you and want to help you solve the problem," Richardson told the legislative panel.

Healy said there is a lot of disinformation about the arrangement with Western Watersheds and the Oregon group, which was part of the company's effort to address concerns it heard at public meetings about sagebrush habitat.

"First and foremost, we didn't give a penny" to Western Watersheds or the Oregon organization, he said. And the confidential agreement states that the money is not to be used for litigation.

"It's a habitat restoration agreement," Healy said. "The intent was never to destroy ranching."

He said El Paso thought the words "willing seller" would work, "but we learned we were wrong."

The representatives said El Paso is listening to concerns, but they conceded in answer to a question from Rhoads that they hadn't talked to Western Watersheds about the possibility of changing wording in the agreement.

"We're gathering the information we need to be sure we get it right ... and we will do more meetings and meet with Western Watersheds," Richardson said.

He said El Paso's negotiations with Western Watersheds began in February of this year, and the company would have reached out if it had realized how ranchers feel about Western Watersheds.

The Idaho-based organization has filed appeals and lawsuits that delay or block grazing projects, including actions filed in partnership with the Center for Biological Diversity.

Three-member boards

Richardson also said the agreement is for three-member boards for each of the funds, including a representative from the environmental organizations, one from the company and an outsider.

"We didn't write a check to Western Watersheds. We chose to take a different approach," he said "It was not a bribe."

Richardson's comment came after state Sen. John Lee, D-North Las Vegas, suggested El Paso caved in to the environmentalists, and Nevada Cattlemen's Association President Ron Cerri of Orovada said "to us the agreement almost borders on an extortion payment."

Richardson told the panel El Paso didn't pick Western Watersheds Project, it picked El Paso.

"We as public lands ranchers didn't pick Western Watersheds either, but its seems WWP thinks they have control of this money and have the potential for new tools to deal with the industry," said John Falen, vice chairman of the Public Lands Council, which met with El Paso earlier this week, along with National Cattlemen's Beef Association leadership.

El Paso has agreed to respond by next Thursday at another meeting in Salt Lake City, according to Falen.

Falen said earlier in the meeting El Paso "dug us a tremendous hole to dig out of," when it signed the agreement with the environmental organizations.

Falen also said the agreement opened the door to other organizations to try to get "a piece of the lucrative pie," citing the Center for Biological Diversity as an example.

Assemblyman John Carpenter, R-Elko, said Western Watersheds doesn't care about the habitat of the sage grouse.

"It's motive is to get livestock off public land," he said. "That's what it's always been about."

Elko County rancher and veterinarian Boyd Spratling testified that ranchers "are all for conservation projects. Where I have a problem is with who they chose to deal with, the biggest bully on the block."

John Ellison's proposal

Elko County Commissioner John Ellison offered his solution at the Friday meeting in Ely. He wants a tri-state commission set up with $20 million to $50 million in El Paso dollars to counter any damage the funds for Western Watersheds and the Oregon organization might do to ranching.

"This would be a fund with no restrictions," he said.

Ellison said if El Paso refused to give money to Western Watersheds, an ensuing lawsuit would cost the company more money, whereas his idea would make "lemonade out of lemons."

"We've been supportive of the project all along. Then to pull this. It was a shock to us," Ellison said.

Commission meetings

County commissioners along the pipeline route plan a meeting on Aug. 12 in Salt Lake City to look for solutions.

Elko County Manager Rob Stokes told the Free Press the meeting in Salt Lake City will be official, so all the commissioners can attend, but they wouldn't take any action at the meeting.

Elko County Commissioner Demar Dahl said "we hope to get every county on board" to come up with identical resolutions.

He also testified the El Paso representative Loren Locher said at a meeting of Boxelder County Commissioners earlier this week that the agreement with Western Watersheds was a "business decision." Dahl attended the Utah meeting.

Elko County Commissioners plan to talk about the Ruby Pipeline deal in regular session Wednesday and have invited El Paso representatives.

Humboldt County Commissioners also have invited El Paso representatives to their Aug. 16 meeting, according to Humboldt County Commissioner Tom Fransway.

Fransway also testified he sponsored a resolution at the recent National Association of Counties gathering in Reno to support new legislation Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., has introduced to change the Equal Access to Justice Act to make it more transparent.

Dan Gralian of the Western Legacy Alliance and manager of Newmont Mining Corp.'s TS Ranch testified the alliance paid for research that showed Western Watersheds received money under the Equal Access to Justice Act to sue the federal government over grazing issues.