Agency expedites listing decision for rare toad in Nevada

By SCOTT SONNER
Associated Press

RENO, Nev. (AP) — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed in a settlement with environmentalists to decide by April 4 whether a rare toad warrants endangered species protection next to a geothermal plant being built in Nevada. The agency lawyers signed the agreement this week with a conservation group that has filed a related lawsuit to block construction of Ormat Technologies Inc.’s project about 100 miles east of Reno. The Center for Biological Diversity and a Nevada tribe won a court order last month temporarily blocking the plant. But the 9th U.S. Circuit of Appeals stayed that order Feb. 4 pending full consideration of Ormat’s appeal, and the company broke ground last week.