Paxton sues Biden administration over lizard’s endangered designation

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration Monday after it declared a rare lizard endangered earlier this year.

Paxton, a Republican, is suing the Department of the Interior, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Biden administration officials after the agencies declared the dunes sagebrush lizard was endangered.

He argued that the groups made “inaccurate and arbitrary assumptions” about the species’ status when they moved to put it on the endangered list in late May.

Paxton’s lawsuit argues that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conceded that the lizard “occupies much of its range” and will do so for several decades, undercutting its endangered status.

In the lawsuit, Paxton said the state of Texas and various state-level agencies have worked with private landowners and industry partners to implement conservation.

“The ability to manage wildlife resources at the state level is especially important to Texas, where most land is privately owned,” the suit said.

The lawsuit, filed in the Western District of Texas, seeks to avoid the final rule, which “threatens to derail these efforts” and violated the Administrative Procedure Act and the Endangered Species Act, Paxton said.

In June, the Railroad Commission of Texas asked Paxton to challenge the endangerment status. The commission regulates the state’s oil and gas industry. The organization argues the endangerment status could be “devastating” to the area’s “vital” oil production.

The commission noted the state’s conservation efforts and called the Biden administration’s endangerment listing “nothing more than a political game.”

It’s not the first time Paxton has challenged the Biden administration. In a statement, reported by Reuters, he said the Democratic administration was “weaponizing environmental law” and was trying to “undermine Texas’s oil and gas industries.”