Elko Daily Free Press 11-15-2010

Public Lands Council hasn't signed Ruby deal

ELKO — The Public Lands Council is still negotiating with El Paso Corp. on a $15 million endowment agreement born after ranchers along the Ruby Pipeline route and throughout the West took El Paso to task for approving a trust agreement with Western Watersheds Project.

"The point now is that we continue to work on the documents. No agreement has been signed," Public Lands Council Executive Director Dustin Van Liew told the Nevada Cattlemen's Association Public Lands Committee Wednesday.

He said El Paso is likely to delay final action on the trust because of litigation the company already faces over the $15 million trust agreement with Western Watersheds and the $7 million conservation trust agreement with the Oregon Natural Desert Association.

A coalition of local governments on the 680-mile Ruby Pipeline route and specifically Lincoln County, Wyo., filed a motion in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in August over the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's approval of rights of way to protest the trust agreements.

The petition is for disclosure of the agreements with the two environmental organizations because they stated they would pursue retirement of grazing permits but the BLM analysis assumed all existing livestock use would continue, according to the document.

Van Liew told the committee at the cattlemen's convention at the Elko Convention Center that the Public Lands Council board will approve the final agreement for its trust, which the board already agreed in principle to approve in wake of the Western Watersheds trust.

The Public Lands Council agreement would establish an endowment to protect and enhance the public lands grazing industry. Van Liew said the proposal was aimed at rectifying the damage done when El Paso agreed to the trust for Western Watersheds that threatened the livestock industry.

"We came to the conclusion they couldn't break the contract," he said. "We posed the question, you've wronged the industry, so how do you mitigate this?"

Since that time, the Public Lands Council has heard concerns that the endowment is a buy-off, and there are "understandable concerns," Van Liew said.

Meanwhile, El Paso continues to install the Ruby Pipeline from Wyoming to Oregon, but the company is now expecting completion in June, rather than March as earlier anticipated.

El Paso stated in its earnings report that permitting and construction are proceeding well on the eastern portion of the pipeline route, but there have been delays obtaining regulatory clearances in the western portion of the route.

"While the pace of obtaining regulatory clearances has recently improved, the delays are expected to push back Ruby's in-service date from March 2011 to June 2011 and increase total project capital by 10 to 15 percent as compared to the original $3 billion budget," the company stated in the earnings announcement last week.

Van Liew also told ranchers efforts will continue in the next session of Congress to change the Equal Access to Justice Act that has led to lawsuits that affect the livestock industry.

The act allows nonprofit organizations to collect fees from the federal government to sue the federal government, but the Public Lands Council will be pushing for changes to show where the money goes and how much is paid out.

"It's your tax dollars. It is out of control," said Van Liew, who is also director of federal lands for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.

He also pointed out that environmental organizations, such as Western Watersheds, continually state that only 2 percent of the livestock industry use federal grazing permits when they pursue efforts to retire grazing permits.

He explained that number came from a 2005 Government Accounting Office study that showed that of 1 million cattle ranches, only 2 percent had federal permits.

The number doesn't count the numbers of cattle involved, and the fact that 40 percent of the cattle in the nation spend some time on public land, Van Liew said. There are 30,000 federal grazing permits in the West and 21,000 entities that hold the permits, according to his figures.

Van Liew also reported efforts will continue to be sure appropriations bills Congress passes include renewal of all federal grazing permits.

He also told the committee that the Public Lands Council and cattlemen will be lobbying for renewal of the death tax that expires at the end of the year unless Congress takes action.

The tax would revert to 55 percent for estates of more than $1 million, and "we want $3 million for individuals and $5 million per couple. We will work to get an exemption for agriculture," Van Liew said.

Ranchers and farmers are often land rich but cash poor, he said.

The Public Lands Council also is keeping an eye on the issue of monument designations in light of the leak last February that the U.S. Department of Interior was looking at designating monuments involving more than 13 million acres in the West.

The hope is to amend the Antiquities Act to prevent designations without any public input and require congressional approval.