The latest move on the government’s effort to classify a tiny lizard as an endangered species in West Texas and Southeast New Mexico—-the Permian Basin—involves pushback by the state of Texas.
Texas General Land Office Commissioner Dawn Buckingham was blunt in her warning to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, writing that the classification of the dunes sagebrush lizard (DSL) as an endangered species “could have a crippling impact on the oil and gas industry.”
“Although the proposed habitat of the DSL is not well or clearly defined, it appears to be located primarily in the Permian Basin of far West Texas, which is the beating heart of Texas’ – and the country’s – oil and gas industry and, therefore, one of the primary sources of revenue for education in Texas, by way of the School Fund and the PUF,” the letter states.
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