National Wildlife Federation v. National Marine Fisheries Service

AMENDED OPINION

OPINION

These consolidated appeals bring us once more to the Pacific Northwest, for another round in the complex and long-running battle over salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”), 16 U.S.C. §§ 1531-1544. In this ESA action brought by the National Wildlife Federation and other plaintiffs (collectively “NWF”), we consider a November 2004 Biological Opinion (“2004 BiOp”) addressing the effects of proposed operations of Federal Columbia River Power System (“FCRPS” or “Columbia River System”) dams and related facilities on listed fish in the lower Columbia and Snake Rivers. The 2004 BiOp, issued by the agency formerly known as the National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and *923 Atmospheric Administration (“NMFS”), 1 found that proposed FCRPS operations for 2004 through 2014 would not jeopardize the thirteen area salmonid species that are listed as threatened or endangered, nor adversely modify their critical habitat. NMFS and the State of Idaho (collectively “NMFS”) appeal from the district court’s determination that the 2004 BiOp was structurally flawed and from certain portions of its remand order. We affirm.

I

The factual and procedural history of this case was detailed in our prior opinion. NWF v. NMFS, 422 F.3d 782, 800 (9th Cir.2005). As background, and for convenience of reference, we will briefly review the proceedings to date to place the present controversy in context.

Every year hundreds of thousands of salmon and steelhead travel up and down the Columbia River and its tributaries, hatching in fresh water, migrating downstream to the sea to achieve adulthood, and then returning upstream to spawn. The wild Pacific salmon population has significantly decreased in recent years, and a number of species of Columbia, Snake, and Willamette River salmon and steelhead are now protected by the Endangered Species Act. 2 Each of the affected stocks migrates at a different time of the year to different parts of the Columbia Basin.

At issue in this case are the fall juvenile Chinook salmon and steelhead migrating downstream to the Pacific Ocean. These fish must pass a number of dams on their journey to the sea and suffer a very high mortality rate in doing so. Each dam in the migration corridor of the mainstream Snake and Columbia Rivers has a bypass system. At some dams, the bypass consists of screens in front of the turbine intakes that divert the salmon and steel-head into a passageway through the dam and downstream. At others, the bypass system diverts the fish into barges for transportation around the dam.

A number of federal, state, and tribal entities are involved in the operation of the Columbia River System. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation manage the dams for multipurpose operations; the Bonneville Power Administration manages federal power generated from the dams; and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission plays a number of roles, including licensing of non-federal hydro-power projects. State regulation impacts the system through governance of water diversions from the river and state conservation programs. A number of federally recognized Indian Tribes retain treaty fishing rights in the waters of the Columbia River System. 3

*924 The issue before us is application of the ESA on the management of the Columbia River System. Section 7 of the ESA requires federal agencies, in consultation with what is known as the “consulting agency,” to conserve species listed under the ESA. The Section requires federal agencies to “insure that any action authorized, funded, or carried out by such agency ... is not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any endangered species or threatened species or result in the destruction or adverse modification of [designated critical] habitat....” 15 U.S.C. § 1536(a)(2). The ESA imposes a procedural consultation duty whenever a federal action may affect an ESA-listed species. Thomas v. Peterson, 753 F.2d 754, 763 (9th Cir.1985). The agencies charged with implementing the ESA have promulgated a regulation clarifying that “Section 7 and the requirements of this part apply to all actions in which there is discretionary Federal involvement or control.” 50 C.F.R. § 402.03 (emphasis added). Thus, where there is such discretionary involvement or control, the agency planning the action, usually known as the “action agency,” must consult with the consulting agency. This process is known as a “Section 7” consultation. The process is usually initiated by a formal written request by the action agency to the consulting agency. After consultation, investigation, and analysis, the consulting agency then prepares a biological opinion. See generally Ariz. Cattle Growers’ Ass’n v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife, 273 F.3d 1229, 1239 (9th Cir.2001). In this case, the action agencies are the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation, while the consulting agency is NMFS.

The consulting agency evaluates the effects of the proposed action on the survival of species and any potential destruction or adverse modification of critical habitat in a biological opinion, 16 U.S.C. § 1536(b), based on “the best scientific and commercial data available,” id. § 1536(a)(2). The biological opinion includes a summary of the information upon which the opinion is based, a discussion of the effects of the action on listed species or critical habitat, and the consulting agency’s opinion on “whether the action is likely to jeopardize the continued existence of a listed species or result in the destruction or adverse modification of critical habitat....” 50 C.F.R. § 402.14(h)(3). In making its jeopardy determination, the consulting agency evaluates “the current status of the listed species or critical habitat,” the “effects of the action,” and “cumulative effects.” Id. § 402.14(g)(2)-(3). “Effects of the action” include both direct and indirect effects of an action “that will be added to the environmental baseline.” Id. § 402.02. The environmental baseline includes “the past and present impacts of all Federal, State or private actions and other human activities in the action area” and “the anticipated impacts of all proposed Federal projects in the action area that have already undergone formal or early section 7 consultation.” Id. If the biological opinion concludes that jeopardy is not likely and that there will not be adverse modification of critical habitat, or that there is a “reasonable and prudent alternative[ ]” to the agency action that avoids jeopardy and adverse modification and that the incidental taking of endangered or threatened species will not violate section 7(a)(2), the consulting agency can issue an “Incidental Take Statement” which, if followed, exempts the action agency from the prohibition on takings 4 found in Section 9 of the *925 ESA. 16 U.S.C. § 1536(b)(4); ALCOA v. BPA, 175 F.3d 1156, 1159 (9th Cir.1999).

If the consulting agency concludes that an action agency’s action may jeopardize the survival of species protected by the ESA, or adversely modify a species’ critical habitat, the action must be modified. ALCOA 175 F.3d at 1159. The consulting agency may recommend a “reasonable and prudent alternative” to the agency’s proposed action. 16 U.S.C. § 1536(b)(3)(A).

The issuance of a biological opinion is considered a final agency action, and therefore subject to judicial review. Bennett v. Spear, 520 U.S. 154, 178, 117 S.Ct. 1154, 137 L.Ed.2d 281 (1997); Ariz. Cattle Growers’ Ass’n, 273 F.3d at 1235.

The ESA, as it applies here to the protection of anadromous fish, requires action agencies- — here the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation — to consult NMFS to ensure that an agency’s actions do not jeopardize an ESA-protected species or adversely modify their critical habitat. 16 U.S.C. § 1536(a)-(b).

Snake River fall Chinook salmon were listed as threatened species in 1992. In 1993, NMFS issued a biological opinion concluding that FCRPS operations would not jeopardize the listed species. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game challenged that opinion. In granting summary judgment for the plaintiff, the district court held that NMFS’s action in issuing the 1993 biological opinion was arbitrary and capricious because NMFS had failed adequately to explain several of the key assumptions in its jeopardy analysis. See Idaho Dep’t of Fish & Game v. Nat’l Marine Fisheries Serv., 850 F.Supp. 886, 900 (D.Or.1994). This decision was vacated on appeal as moot because NMFS had issued a subsequent biological opinion. Idaho Dep’t of Fish & Game v. Nat’l Marine Fisheries Serv., 56 F.3d 1071, 1075 (9th Cir.1995). After further litigation and agency action not directly relevant to this case, NMFS issued a new biological opinion on December 21, 2000, (the “2000 BiOp”) that superseded the previous biological opinions.

The 2000 BiOp determined that the continued operation of FCRPS as proposed by the action agencies would jeopardize eight listed salmon and steelhead species. Specifically, NMFS found that the “effects of the proposed or continuing action, the effects of the environmental baseline, and any cumulative effects, and considering measures for survival and recovery specific to other life stages,” would leave the eight species-with too low a likelihood of survival and population recovery. NMFS thus explored reasonable and prudent alternatives to the proposed operation and analyzed whether these alternatives, in conjunction with the environmental baseline and cumulative effects, would avoid jeopardizing the species. Because NMFS found these alternatives insufficient, it then assessed whether the added impact of off-site mitigation activities unrelated to FCRPS operations, including hatchery and habitat initiatives, would avoid jeopardy, and found that they would.

NWF filed an ESA challenge to the 2000 BiOp in the District of Oregon, initiating this litigation. In May 2003, the district court ruled that the 2000 BiOp was arbitrary and capricious because it relied on (1) federal mitigation actions that had not been subject to Section 7 consultation and (2) non-federal mitigation actions that had not been shown reasonably certain to occur. NWF v. NMFS, 254 F.Supp.2d 1196, 1213 (D.Or.2003). The court remanded to the agencies for a new BiOp and revisions to the proposed operations, leaving the 2000 BiOp in effect in the meantime.

*926 On remand, NMFS made several structural changes to its jeopardy analysis. The 2004 BiOp’s jeopardy analysis included in the environmental baseline for the proposed action the existing FCRPS, various supposedly nondiscretionary dam operations, and all past and present impacts from discretionary operations. NMFS also adopted a novel “reference operation” approach in the 2004 BiOp, purportedly in order to account for the existence of the FCRPS dams. The reference operation consisted of the dams and a hypothetical regime for operating them, which, according to NMFS, was the most beneficial to listed fishes of any possible operating regime. NMFS also found, though, that certain aspects of FCRPS operations — such as operations relating to irrigation, flood control, and power generation — were non-discretionary, given the dams’ existence, and that those aspects should not be considered part of the action under ESA review. The BiOp offers little detail on the nature and extent of the purportedly non-discretionary obligations or NMFS’s basis for finding them to be nondiscretionary.

Also, instead of assessing whether the listed fish would be jeopardized by the aggregate of the proposed agency action, the environmental baseline, cumulative effects, and current status of the species, NMFS segregated its analysis, first evaluating whether the proposed agency action — consisting of only the proposed discretionary operation of the FCRPS— would have an appreciable net effect on a species. It considered additional context only if it found such an effect. By using this so-called comparative approach rather than a more holistic, aggregate approach, NMFS concluded that the proposed action would not jeopardize the continued existence of the listed fish. Although the 2004 BiOp did not point to any improvement in the fishes’ status or the impacts of FCRPS operations, its new approach attributed only a much smaller portion of the fishes’ perilous condition to the proposed operations under review. The 2004 BiOp’s jeopardy analysis also omitted any clear consideration of the impact of proposed operations on listed species’ chances of recovery, which had been a prominent feature of earlier analyses.

On December 30, 2004, NWF filed a Second Supplemental Complaint against NMFS, challenging the new 2004 BiOp. 5 On May 26, 2005, the district court ruled on summary judgment motions filed by NWF, the State of Oregon (which intervened as a plaintiff), NMFS, and other parties. The court held the 2004 BiOp invalid on several grounds raised by NWF and declined to reach the various parties’ other claims.

The district court concluded that there were several structural flaws with the 2004 BiOp’s jeopardy analysis, as well as more modest defects in the BiOp’s analysis of impacts on critical habitat. First, the court determined that the agencies had discretion to balance the FCRPS’s various purposes to comply with ESA’s requirements, and that the 2004 BiOp impermissi-bly used the “reference operation” to redefine most FCRPS ongoing operations as part of the “existence of the dams,” instead of including those operations as part of the agency action under review. Also, the court held that the 2004 BiOp’s new, two-stage comparative analysis did not satisfy NMFS’s obligation to make its jeopardy determination based on the full natural and human context of the proposed action. The court also objected to the 2004 BiOp’s complete omission of recovery needs from its jeopardy analysis. Finally, the court *927 concluded that the 2004 BiOp did not adequately consider the recovery implications of the proposed operation’s effects on designated critical habitat for three listed species.

On June 10, 2005, the district court granted in part NWF’s motion for a preliminary injunction requiring NMFS to increase flow and spill at certain FCRPS dams during the summer of 2005. On review of that decision, we held that the district court had not abused its discretion in granting NWF a preliminary injunction, but remanded to the district court “the question of whether the injunction should be more narrowly tailored or modified.” NWF, 422 F.3d at 800.

On September 26, 2005, the district court entered final judgment under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(b), as to its May 2005 summary judgment decision on the merits of NWF’s 2004 BiOp claims. The district court then remanded to NMFS for yet another revision of the BiOp, which was proceeding at the time of oral argument. Among other things, the remand order required NMFS to collaborate with interested states and tribes and to provide a “failure report” if the remand process appeared unlikely to produce a no-jeopardy finding within the court’s remand timeframe. After the court amended its Rule 54(b) order on October 24, 2005, to include the October 10, 2005, remand order, NMFS appealed again. We consider here NMFS’s challenges to the merits of the district court’s May 2005 summary judgment decision, and to the novel elements of the remand order. 6

We review the district court’s decision and analysis de novo. We may affirm the district court’s rejection of the 2004 BiOp, under the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”), if the agency action is arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law. 5 U.S.C. § 706(2)(a). Although we may not substitute our judgment for that of the agency, wé must engage in a careful, searching review to ensure that the agency has made a rational analysis and decision on the record before it. Pac. Coast Fed’n of Fishermen’s Ass’ns v. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, 426 F.3d 1082, 1090 (9th Cir.2005).

II

After a careful review of the record, we conclude that the district court correctly determined that the jeopardy analysis of the 2004 BiOp contained structural flaws that rendered it incompatible with the ESA. Our conclusion is not altered by the Supreme Court’s recent decision in National Association of Home Builders v. Defenders of Wildlife, — U.S. -, 127 S.Ct. 2518, 168 L.Ed.2d 467 (2007), which was filed after our opinion was published but before we received the petition for rehearing. 7 In Home Builders, the Supreme Court granted Chevron deference to the regulation which provides that Section 7 consultation applies “to all actions in which there is discretionary Federal involvement or control,” 50 C.F.R. § 402.03 (emphasis added). 127 S.Ct. at 2534-35. The Court interpreted the regulation as *928 clarifying that Section 7 “covers only discretionary agency actions and does not attach to actions ... that an agency is required by statute to undertake once certain specified triggering events have occurred.” Id. at 2536 (emphasis in original). The Court found the regulation to be a reasonable resolution to the problem of an agency being unable to “simultaneously obey” both Section 7 and a separate statute which expressly requires an agency to take a conflicting action. Id. at 2533-34. We do not face this problem here, however, because in the present case Congress has imposed broad mandates, rather than directing the agency to take specific actions, and the agencies are perfectly capable of simultaneously obeying Section 7 and those mandates.

A

The district court properly held that NMFS may not use a hypothetical “reference operation” in its jeopardy analysis to exclude from the proposed actions’ impacts the effects of related operations NMFS deems “nondiscretionary.” NMFS admits that it chose the reference operation approach in order to avoid “trying to precisely determine the extent of the Action Agencies’ discretionary operation.” However, neither the ESA nor Home Builders peimits agencies to ignore potential jeopardy risks by labeling parts of an action nondiscretionary. We cannot approve NMFS’s interpretation of this rule as excluding from the agency action under review discretionary agency actions taken pursuant to a broad congressional mandate.

First, we note that federal agencies, including NMFS, have not previously taken such a cramped view of § 402.03’s reference to “discretionary” federal action. Indeed, such an approach is a drastic change from NMFS’s own approach in the 1995 and 2000 BiOps. Because NMFS’s approach is a novel one, completely at odds with NMFS’s prior scientific approaches, it merits little deference. INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U.S. 421, 446 n. 30, 107 S.Ct. 1207, 94 L.Ed.2d 434 (1987) (“An agency interpretation of a relevant provision which conflicts with the agency’s earlier interpretation is entitled to considerably less deference ....”) (internal quotation marks omitted).

Second, NMFS’s contention that competing mandates for flood control, irrigation, and power production create any immutable obligations that fall outside of agency discretion is not persuasive. Indeed, NMFS’s interpretation is neither mandated nor intimated by the Court’s holding in Home Builders. The Court’s concern in Home Builders was that “[a]n agency cannot simultaneously obey the differing mandates set forth in § 7(a)(2) of the ESA and § 402(b) of the CWA.” 127 S.Ct. at 2534. In this context, compliance with the CWA provision is problematic because the provision “affirmatively mandates that [a specific action which conflicts with the ESA] ‘shall’ be [taken] if the specified criteria are met. The provision operates as a ceiling as well as a floor.” Id. at 2533. Here, in contrast, Congress has imposed broad mandates which do not direct agencies to perform any specific nondiscretionary actions, but rather, are better characterized as directing the agencies to achieve particular goals.

The 2004 BiOp' itself recognizes that Congress has not quantified any of those broad goals, or otherwise specified the manner in which the agencies must fulfill them. NMFS found, for instance, that Congress has mandated that dam operations include flood control, though “Congress has not prescribed precisely how the Corps must achieve its flood control responsibilities.” 2004 BiOp at 5-5. Simi *929 larly, Congress has mandated that the BPA market and transmit “some level of power, although the precise level is not defined.” Id. Thus, the 2004 BiOp recognizes that Congress has not specified the manner in which the agencies must fulfill them various obligations. In other words, while the goals themselves may be mandatory, the agencies retain considerable discretion in choosing what specific actions to take in order to implement them. The agencies are therefore obligated to satisfy the ESA’s requirements. See Pac. Coast Fed’n, 426 F.3d at 1084-85 (“The ESA obligates federal agencies ‘to afford first priority to the declared national policy of saving endangered species.’ ”) (quoting TVA v. Hill, 437 U.S. 153, 185, 98 S.Ct. 2279, 57 L.Ed.2d 117 (1978)). 8

NMFS may not avoid determining the limits of the action agencies’ discretion by using a reference operation to sweep so-called “nondiscretionary” operations into the environmental baseline, thereby excluding them from the requisite ESA jeopardy analysis. And Home Builders cannot be read, as the State of Idaho would have us do, to immunize discretionary agency actions simply because they are taken in pursuit of a non-discretionary goal. The concern that an agency cannot “simultaneously obey” with both the ESA and the broad mandates relevant to this case is simply not at issue here.

ESA compliance is not optional. “[A]n agency cannot escape its obligation to comply with the ESA merely because it is bound to comply with another statute that has consistent, complementary objectives.” Washington Toxics Coal. v. EPA, 413 F.3d 1024, 1032 (9th Cir.2005). As the Court emphasized in Home Builders, “ESA’s no-jeopardy mandate applies to every discretionary agency action — regardless of the expense or burden its application might impose.” 127 S.Ct. at 2537. When an agency, acting in furtherance of a broad Congressional mandate, chooses a course of action which is not specifically mandated by Congress and which is not specifically necessitated by the broad mandate, that action is, by definition, discretionary and is thus subject to Section 7 consultation. Because NMFS’s approach in the 2004 BiOp produces the opposite result, it is inconsistent with the ESA and its accompanying regulations, and cannot stand.

B

The district court also properly concluded that the 2004 BiOp impermissibly failed to incorporate degraded baseline conditions into its jeopardy analysis. The 2004 BiOp initially evaluated the effects of the proposed action as compared to the reference operation, rather than focusing its analysis on whether the action effects, when added to the underlying baseline conditions, would tip the species into jeopardy. Like the district court, we cannot approve NMFS’s insistence that it may conduct the bulk of its jeopardy analysis in a vacuum.

To “jeopardize the continued existence of’ means “to engage in an action that *930 reasonably would be expected, directly or indirectly, to reduce appreciably the likelihood of both the survival and recovery of a listed species in the wild by reducing the reproduction, numbers, or distribution of that species.” 50 CFR § 402.02; 16 U.S.C. § 1536(a)(2). NMFS argues that, under this definition, it may satisfy the ESA by comparing the effects of proposed FCRPS operations on listed species to the risk posed by baseline conditions. Only if those effects are “appreciably” worse than baseline conditions must a full jeopardy analysis be made. Under this approach, a listed species could be gradually destroyed, so long as each step on the path to destruction is sufficiently modest. This type of slow slide into oblivion is one of the very ills the ESA seeks to prevent.

Requiring NMFS to consider the proposed FCRPS operations in their actual context does not, as NMFS argues, effectively expand the “agency action” at issue to include all independent or baseline harms to listed species. Nor does it have the effect of preventing any federal action once background conditions place a species in jeopardy. To “jeopardize” — the action ESA prohibits — means to “expose to loss or injury” or to “imperil.” Either of these implies causation, and thus some new risk of harm. Likewise, the suffix “-ize” in “jeopardize” indicates some active change of status: an agency may not “cause [a species] to be or to become” in a state of jeopardy or “subject [a species] to” jeopardy. American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.). Agency action can only “jeopardize” a species’ existence if that agency action causes some deterioration in the species’ pre-action condition.

Even under the so-called aggregation approach NMFS challenges, then, an agency only “jeopardize^]” a species if it causes some new jeopardy. An agency may still take action that removes a species from jeopardy entirely, or that lessens the degree of jeopardy. However, an agency may not take action that will tip a species from a state of precarious survival into a state of likely extinction. Likewise, even where baseline conditions already jeopardize a species, an agency may not take action that deepens the jeopardy by causing additional harm.

Our approach does not require NMFS to include the entire environmental baseline in the “agency action” subject to review. 9 It simply requires that NMFS appropriately consider the effects of its actions “within the context of other existing human activities that impact the listed species.” ALCOA, 175 F.3d at 1162 n. 6 (citing 50 C.F.R. § 402.02’s definition of the environmental baseline). This approach is consistent with our instruction (which NMFS does not challenge) that “[t]he proper baseline analysis is not the proportional share of responsibility the federal agency bears for the decline in the species, but what jeopardy might result from the agency’s proposed actions in the present and future human and natural contexts.” Pac. Coast Fed’n, 426 F.3d at 1093 (emphasis added).

The current existence of the FCRPS dams constitutes an “existing human activity” which is already endangering the fishes’ survival and recovery. See ALCOA, 175 F.3d at 1162 n. 6 (citing 50 C.F.R. § 402.02). Although we acknowledge that the existence of the dams must be included in the environmental baseline, *931 the operation of the dams is within the federal agencies’ discretion under both the ESA and the Northwest Power Act, 16 U.S.C. § 839. Any proposed agency action must be evaluated in the contest of this baseline in order to properly determine whether the proposed actions will jeopardize the listed fishes.

C

The district court also properly concluded that the 2004 BiOp was legally deficient because its jeopardy analysis did not adequately consider the proposed actions’ impacts on the listed species’ chances of recovery. ESA prohibits agency action that is “likely to jeopardize the continued existence of’ any listed species. 16 U.S.C. § 1536(a)(2). The regulations interpret this to prohibit any agency action “that reasonably would be expected, directly or indirectly, to reduce appreciably the likelihood of both the survival and recovery of a listed species in the wild.” 50 CFR § 402.02 (emphasis added).

NMFS contends that this restriction bars only actions that will both (1) reduce appreciably the likelihood of survival and (2) reduce appreciably the likelihood of recovery, and that its views are entitled to deference under Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. NRDC, 467 U.S. 837, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984). Under this interpretation, though, NMFS need only consider effects on survival: if there is no appreciable reduction of survival odds, there can never be jeopardy, even if recovery is completely impossible. Because a species can often cling to survival even when recovery is far out of reach, NMFS’s interpretation of the jeopardy regulation reads “and recovery” entirely out of the text. This disregard for the statutory and regulatory context deserves no deference.

Although we “will generally afford deference to the agency’s construction of its own regulation,” this deference is not absolute. Regents of Univ. of Cal. v. Shalala, 82 F.3d 291, 294 (9th Cir.1996); see also Webber v. Crabtree, 158 F.3d 460, 461 (9th Cir.1998) (“Although we accord a high degree of deference to an agency’s interpretation of its own regulation, that interpretation cannot be upheld if it is plainly erroneous or inconsistent with the regulation.”). Rather, the court conducts a “two-pronged analysis.” Shalala, 82 F.3d at 294. First, considering the “plain language of the regulation,” we must inquire whether “[t]he words of the regulation [are] reasonably susceptible to the construction placed upon them [by the agency], both on their face and in light of their prior interpretation and application.” /(¿.(internal quotation marks omitted). Second, we review the agency’s construction “in relation to the governing statute,” to determine whether it is “consistent with and in furtherance of the purposes and policies embodied in the Congressional statute” authorizing the regulation. Id. NMFS’s interpretation of the jeopardy regulation fails at both stages.

As in Gifford Pinchot Task Force v. United States Fish & Wildlife Service, 378 F.3d 1059 (9th Cir.2004), we conclude that the jeopardy regulation requires NMFS to consider both recovery and survival impacts. Gifford Pinchot held that NMFS was required to consider recovery as well as survival impacts in evaluating adverse modification of critical habitat, rejecting the agency’s narrow interpretation of regulatory language identical to that presented here. Specifically, we held that “[b]eeause it is logical and inevitable that a species requires more critical habitat for recovery than is necessary for the species survival, the regulation’s singular focus becomes ‘survival.’ ” Gifford Pinchot, 378 F.3d at 1069. Concluding that ESA’s critical habitat provisions required protec *932 tion — and thus agency consideration — of both survival and recovery needs, we held that the regulation’s “singular focus” on survival violated the ESA. Id. at 1070.

We need not consider whether the ESA itself requires NMFS to consider both survival and recovery (as Gifford Pinchot held was the case for critical habitat), because we conclude that the text of the jeopardy regulation is not “reasonably susceptible” to the “survival only” interpretation NMFS now gives it. As a general rule applicable to both statutes and regulations, textual interpretations that give no significance to portions of the text are disfavored. Hart v. McLucas, 535 F.2d 516, 519 (9th Cir.1976). NMFS’s reading of the jeopardy regulation inexplicably reads “and recovery” out of the text. Also, NMFS’s interpretation is unreasonable “in light of [the regulation’s] prior interpretation and application.” See Shalala, 82 F.3d at 294 (internal quotation marks omitted). Until issuing the 2004 BiOp, the agency had consistently interpreted 50 C.F.R. § 402.02 as requiring a joint analysis of both survival and recovery impacts. Nothing in its prior approach indicates that NMFS may simply avoid any consideration of recovery impacts, as it admits it has done here. 10

When the regulation was issued in its current form, in June 1986, the preamble and comments on the revised regulations offered a reasonable explanation for the regulation’s use of the phrase “reduce appreciably the likelihood of both the survival and recovery of a listed species.” 51 Fed.Reg. 19,934 (June 3, 1986). The comments noted that there was some controversy over the reference to “both the survival and recovery,” but explained that the standard referred to a “joint survival and recovery concept.” Id. (emphasis added). The 1986 revisions added the word “both” “to emphasize that, except in exceptional circumstances, injury to recovery alone would not warrant [a jeopardy finding].” Id. (emphasis added). Thus, “in exceptional circumstances,” injury to recovery prospects alone could result in a jeopardy finding. The comments expressly acknowledged that “significant impairment of recovery efforts or other adverse effects[besides survival impacts] which rise to the level of ‘jeopardizing’ the ‘continued existence’ of a listed species can also be the basis for issuing a ‘jeopardy’ opinion.” Id. In order to recognize such effects, and to apply the proper “joint survival and recovery concept,” NMFS must analyze effects on recovery as well as effects on survival. 11

We also note that this view of survival and recovery, as intertwined needs that must both be considered in a jeopardy analysis, is consistent with NMFS’s jeopardy analysis in earlier BiOps, particularly the 1995 and 2000 BiOps in this very dispute. Those BiOps plainly considered analysis of the listed species’ prospects for recovery as essential to the jeopardy analysis, and included repeated reference to, *933 and measurement of, the relevant species’ chances to súrvive proposed operations “with an adequate potential for recovery.” NMFS has offered no rational explanation for its sudden decision to omit recovery needs from the 2004 BiOp’s analysis. Because the agency has so dramatically changed its approach, its new interpretation is entitled to less deference than we might usually give. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U.S. at 446 n. 30, 107 S.Ct. 1207.

The question before us is not whether, on the merits, recovery risks in fact require a jeopardy finding here, but whether, as part of the consultation process, NMFS must conduct a full analysis of those risks and their impacts on the listed species’ continued existence. Although recovery impacts alone may not often prompt a jeopardy finding, NMFS’s analytical omission here may not be dismissed as harmless: the highly precarious status of the listed fishes at issue raises a substantial possibility that considering recovery impacts could change the jeopardy analysis. 12 The only reasonable interpretation of the jeopardy regulation requires NMFS to consider recovery impacts as well as survival.

D

In sum, the district court correctly held that the 2004 BiOp’s analysis was structurally flawed. It properly determined that the agency may not use a hypothetical “reference operation” in its jeopardy analysis to exclude from the proposed action’s impacts the effects of related operations the agency deems “nondiscretionary.” The district court also properly concluded that the 2004 BiOp impermissibly failed to incorporate degraded baseline conditions into its jeopardy analysis. Finally, the district court correctly determined that the 2004 BiOp was legally deficient because its jeopardy analysis did not adequately consider the proposed action’s impacts on t