Texas is now threatening to sue the Biden administration over an endangered species classification the state alleges violates federal law and could harm property owners while interfering with other conservation efforts.
In a Monday press release, Attorney General Ken Paxton announced he has issued a Notice of Intent to “begin the process of suing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the U.S. Department of the Interior,” following similar announcements from the attorneys general for Kansas and Oklahoma.
In November, the FWS listed two distinct population segments (DPS) of the lesser prairie-chicken (LPC) under the Endangered Species Act. The southern DPS was classified as “endangered” while the northern DPS was classified as “threatened.”
Both of these segments “cover expansive regions within Texas,” according to the attorney general’s office.
Paxton’s statement alleges these classification changes “burden Texas property owners with onerous new regulations wherever LPCs are present” and “were done with inadequate consideration of ongoing conservation measures and in violation of several federal laws.”
“I will not tolerate the Biden Administration’s efforts to run roughshod over the property rights of Texans and to stop our conservation efforts aimed at protecting Texas wildlife,” Paxton said in the release.
“This rule was a targeted attempt to implement an unlawful, top-down federal approach aimed at advancing a radical environmentalist agenda, which would crush the type of economic development that aids in providing funds for conservation,” he continued. “This isn’t going to fly in Texas.”
The attorney general’s office claims that the FWS is required by the Endangered Species Act to consider several additional but unspecified variables before classifying a species as endangered or threatened and that the National Environmental Policy Act requires an impact analysis to be conducted.
“These federal requirements were not met in this case,” the press release said.
But a press release from the FWS claims the decision was made “following a rigorous review of the best available scientific and commercial information regarding the past, present and future threats, as well as ongoing conservation efforts.”
It further claims that “Voluntary conservation efforts have helped conserve key habitat for the lesser prairie-chicken but have not demonstrated an ability to offset the threats and reverse the trends of habitat loss and fragmentation.”
Southwest Regional Director Amy Lueders commented in the release:
“The Service continues to work with stakeholders to develop voluntary conservation agreements that will protect the lesser prairie-chicken and the native grasslands on which it depends while assuring that oil and gas and renewable energy development, ranching, agriculture, and other activities continue.”
Multiple states, including Texas, have initiated conservation efforts to protect lesser prairie-chickens. Industry groups, private landowners, and environmental conservation organizations have joined in many of these initiatives.
According to the attorney general’s office, these efforts are compromised by the new classifications.
“Combining this disregard for federal law, the overly vague nature of the rule, and the failure to abide by the legally-required notice of proposed rulemaking, the new rule constitutes yet another example of the Biden Administration’s willingness to prioritize executive overreach over state-directed management and conservation of natural resources,” the statement concluded.
The Dallas Express contacted the attorney general’s office and asked for clarification regarding how these classifications harm property owners, how they interfere with other conservation efforts, and what variables the FWS failed to consider, but received no response by the time of publication.