Ken Paxton Sues Biden Administration Over Texas Lizard’s Endangered Species List

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Monday that his office is suing the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Biden administration officials for designating the rare lizard as an endangered species earlier this year.

A sagebrush lizard burrows into sand dunes in the Mescalero-Monahans Ecosystem 30 miles west of Odessa — the same area in West Texas that is home to some of the state’s largest oil and gas fields.

For four decades, biologists have warned federal regulators of the existential threat that oil and gas exploration and development pose to the reptile’s habitat, while industry representatives have opposed the move, saying it would scare off companies interested in drilling in the nation’s most profitable oil and gas basin.

In May, federal regulators said the expansion of the lizard industry posed a serious threat to its survival and listed it as an endangered species.

Now the state’s top attorney has filed a lawsuit.

“The Biden-Harris administration’s illegal abuse of environmental law is an attempt to undermine the Texas oil and gas industry that helps keep the lights on for America,” Paxton said. “I warned them we would sue them for this illegal move, and now we’re going to see them in court.”

In a statement, Paxton said the lizard’s listing violates the Endangered Species Act, adding that the Fish and Wildlife Service “did not rely on the best scientific and commercial data” in designating the lizard as an endangered species and did not take into account conservation efforts already underway to protect the species.

According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, the 2.5-inch lizard lives in only about 4 percent of the 86,000-square-mile Permian Basin, which spans Texas and New Mexico. In Texas, the lizard has been found in Andrews, Crane, Gaines, Ward and Winkler counties.

According to a 2023 Fish and Wildlife Service analysis, the lizard is “functionally extinct” across 47% of its range.

The list requires oil and gas companies to avoid operating in areas inhabited by the lizard, but the Fish and Wildlife Service has not yet determined where those areas are because it is still gathering information. Oil and gas companies could be fined up to $50,000 and imprisoned, depending on the violation, if they operate in those areas.

Paxton’s office said that because the Fish and Wildlife Service has not specifically designated these areas, operators and landowners are unsure what they can do with their land.