Environmentalists and a Nevada Native American tribe are seeking to reinforce the Trump administration’s defense of Endangered Species Act protections granted to an industry-vexing toad.
Citing a possibility that the administration could waver, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe on Tuesday filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit that challenges the listing of the Dixie Valley toad as endangered. If allowed in as intervenors, the groups could keep defending the toad’s protected status even if the Fish and Wildlife Service reverses course.
The underlying lawsuit seeking to overturn the toad’s ESA protections was filed last year by Ormat Nevada, which is developing the Dixie Meadows Geothermal Utilization Project on Bureau of Land Management property. The company’s lawsuit contends federal protections are not warranted and asserts that the listing harmed the company, “including by impairing its significant investment of time, money, and other resources in a critically needed new renewable energy project.”
The company’s original plan called for up to two 30-megawatt geothermal power plants on 16 acres each. Ormat has noted that it has since backed away from the original plan and now proposes limiting it to approximately 12 MW.
