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TX to Sue Biden Admin over Prairie Chickens

prairie chickens
President Joe Biden | Image by lev radin

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.

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6 Comments

  1. Pap

    Transport a bunch of them to Martha’s Vineyard.

    Reply
  2. Lanie

    With all the things going on in Texas that need attention, Patrick decides to take a stand regarding the prairie chicken. And he was reelected back in office?

    Reply
    • R Reason

      That’s Paxton, loyal Trump ally, election denier-in-chief, in his third-term, Ken Paxton. I don’t get it, either.

      Reply
  3. Anna S

    So does anyone know what happens when a law suit is brought against a president? Is he ever made to pay or do the taxpayers pay or does such a law suit ever get tried in a court? Biden is as crooked as a dog’s hind leg. That said, I think it has to be wishful thinking to waste money filling a suit!

    Reply
  4. athinkingwoman

    Most Americans have no idea of what conservation regulations can do to our farmers and ranchers. Any conservation inspector can declare any part of your land to be the native and natural habitat of some obscure, endangered species. Then, it is your problem to prove it not to be so. Until you do, you can no longer use that land for anything.
    I had a neighbor who had a broken irrigation pipe which temporarily flooded a swale on his property. Some conservation inspector happened by and declared it a natural wetlands habitat. He owned and paid taxes on his property but was nearly bankrupted fighting the designation in court for years while not being able to use his land for ranching, farming, crossing through it–or even installing solar arrays and wind turbines!

    Reply
  5. Steve

    Keep screwing with the leftists , win , lose or draw

    Reply

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