By Jonathan Stempel
June 4 (Reuters) – The Trump administration agreed to strip endangered species protection from a lizard whose habitat overlapped the largest oil-producing region in the United States, settling a lawsuit brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated the dunes sagebrush lizard as endangered in May 2024, after concluding that oil and gas development in the Permian Basin had made the loss of its habitat “effectively permanent.”
But the service now believes it made a “serious and fundamental” error by improperly assuming that habitat restoration could not occur, and by discounting experimental efforts that “showed promise,” the U.S. Department of Justice said in a Wednesday court filing accompanying the settlement.
That error “led to an incomplete and potentially inaccurate assessment of the potential and ongoing conservation efforts in New Mexico and Texas,” the Justice Department said.
The settlement requires approval by a federal judge in Midland, Texas.
It is the latest environmental rollback under President Donald Trump, a Republican who has pushed to dismantle regulations in a bid to reduce costs for industry and boost domestic energy production. Critics say his efforts weaken protections for air, water and public health.
Paxton’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday.
PAXTON CALLED BIDEN-ERA RULE POLITICALLY MOTIVATED
The September 2024 lawsuit sought to undo the final rule protecting the lizard, issued during then-Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration.
Paxton said the rule was politically motivated, could undermine energy production, and threatened private landowners’ ability to conduct business.
The Fish and Wildlife Service, part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, declared the lizard endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act, which restricts development in habitats deemed critical to a species’ survival.
Under the settlement, the agency plans further review and to decide within two years whether to reclassify the lizard as endangered or threatened.
It did not admit wrongdoing beyond acknowledging error regarding habitat restoration.
Paxton, a Republican, is seeking a U.S. Senate seat, and is a strong Trump supporter.
The dunes sagebrush lizard’s range spans 1.25 million acres (1,953 square miles), according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Texas accounted for 43% of the nation’s crude oil production and 28% of its natural gas gross withdrawals in 2024, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
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