Almost 100,000 comments missing from federal sage grouse conservation report
The Trump administration’s decision to amend a hard-fought compromise between states and the federal government on how to protect a chickenlike bird in resource-rich Western states sent green groups scrambling to mobilize their members to speak their minds to Washington.
Environmentalists registered their discontent over the reopening of the Obama-era conservation plan to protect the greater sage grouse, a bird that makes its home among the sagebrush sea stretching from Montana to New Mexico and from California to Colorado, by mailing by paper or electronically their objections during the official comment period.
Altogether, roughly 267,000 individuals submitted comments to the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management at the behest of about 20 environmental groups, they say.
But the BLM tallied far fewer comments received for its “scoping” report: About 170,000 individuals submitted comments, according to a memorandum by David Bernhardt, the No. 2 top official at the department, sent to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.
“The comments demonstrated a varied range of views,” Bernhardt wrote.
The discrepancy left environmental groups scrambling to figure out why their comments did not show up in the public record. Phil Hanceford, conservation director of the Wilderness Society, called the missing comments “a glaring reminder that BLM has some pretty serious transparency issues.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-energy-202/2018/03/09/the-energy-202-almost-100-000-comments-missing-from-federal-sage-grouse-conservation-report/5aa19ac830fb047655a06b95/?utm_term=.e3e8f858d78f
