The Texas General Land Office and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are at odds over a lizard.
Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham is pushing back against a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services (USFWS) proposal to classify the dunes sagebrush lizard (DSL) as an endangered species, claiming it could cripple the state’s oil and gas industry.
Last July, USFWS proposed that the lizard be designated an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, declaring it “highly susceptible to habitat loss and fragmentation.”
The DSL is native to southeastern New Mexico and West Texas, specifically the Permian Basin, which is the source of roughly 43% of the country’s oil and 17% of the country’s natural gas, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
If deemed an endangered species, actions that could damage the lizard’s habitat would be prohibited, including “surface exploration, exploratory drilling, oil field development, and facility construction, including access roads, well pads, and operation and maintenance.”
In response to the recommendation, Buckingham drafted a letter on August 25 to the USFWS expressing her disapproval of the measure.
Buckingham said the Permian Basin is the “beating heart of Texas’ — and the country’s — oil and gas industry” and claimed that classifying the DSL as endangered would prohibit actions necessary for the industry to operate.
The letter also highlights what Buckingham considers to be weaknesses in USFWS’ proposal.
“No evidence has been provided by USFWS to illustrate a change to oil and gas development in the area sufficient to justify reversal of its 2012 finding that the DSL does not meet the statutory definition of an endangered or threatened species under the Endangered Species Act,” Buckingham wrote.
Additionally, she claimed that the “USFWS disregards relevant voluntary conservation efforts in its analysis,” adding that the agency “categorically disregards the Texas conservation agreements.”
“USFWS does not consider the impacts of conservation efforts unless they’re compulsory, permanent, and all-encompassing. That can’t be so. This explanation demonstrates the high-handed approach USFWS would prefer, but it certainly does not justify disregarding the impacts of a more cooperative and moderate approach to protecting the DSL,” wrote Buckingham.
Finally, Buckingham claimed that the USFWS is not acknowledging the increasing DSL population and that there is no indication of a decreasing population to justify federal intervention.
Buckingham cited a study from 2022 that claims DSL captures were three to four times higher in 2022 than in 2019 and 2020.
“This demonstrated increase in population numbers and improved demographic survival and immigration metrics directly contradicts certain USFWS contentions, although USFWS does concede that the DSL ‘still occupies much of its range,'” wrote Buckingham.
“Accordingly, the GLO will in no way assist USFWS in their efforts to implement the proposed Rule at the expense of vital Texas oil and gas resources. The GLO respectfully requests that the USFWS respond to these comments in writing,” she wrote.
For its part, USFWS claimed in its proposal:
“We have determined that the dunes sagebrush lizard is endangered due to the following threats: (1) Habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation from development by the oil and gas and frac sand (high-purity quartz sand that is suspended in fluid and injected into wells to blast and hold open cracks in the shale rock layer during the fracking process) mining industries; and (2) climate change and climate conditions, both resulting in hotter, more arid conditions with an increased frequency and greater intensity of drought throughout the species’ geographic range.”