Lummis pushes back against endangered listing for bat

U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis has once again expressed her disapproval of the decision to upgrade the northern long-eared bat’s status to endangered – this time, in the form of a joint resolution.

As the new listing for the bat went into effect, Lummis was among a group of eleven lawmakers who submitted a joint resolution in protest.

The resolution states that Congress “disapproves the rule submitted by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service…and such rule shall have no force or effect”.

It was introduced to the Senate, read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.

Lummis has railed against the listing upgrade since it was listed, sending a letter of concern alongside 11 other senators that the listing will leave “countless infrastructure project consultations in limbo”.

Lummis was concerned that many infrastructure projects will require federal agencies and project sponsors to consult with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on potential impacts to the bat and its habitat, “even though these projects and developments have little contributing impact to the decline of the species, and most mitigation measures will do little to nothing to combat [the spread of the disease affecting the bat’s population size].”

The upgraded classification to endangered species is in response to the continued spread of white-nose syndrome, a fungal pathogen that invades a bat’s skin and causes it to arouse more often and for longer during the hibernation period, depleting the fat reserves needed to survive through the winter.

White-nose syndrome is believed to have caused a population decline of between 97 and 100% across 79% of the bat’s range, which is believed to include Crook County. The disease was the driving factor behind the bat’s listing as “threatened” in 2015.

According to a press release, Lummis submitted the joint resolution because she believes the new classification will place an undue burden on Wyoming landowners, businesses and infrastructure projects without clear scientific evidence of the benefit to the bat.

“This is textbook big government having a solution and searching for a problem,” she said. 

“Creating a regulatory headache for the people of Wyoming is not going to help the northern long-eared bat, but it sure is going to cost many hardworking people a lot of time and money. We can responsibly manage wildlife without crushing economic growth and killing jobs.”