Ken Paxton Has a New Nemesis: This Tiny, Endangered Lizard

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton bravely came to the defense of the oil and gas industry Monday, suing the Biden administration for daring to try and protect a rare lizard.

The tiny reptile in question is the dunes sagebrush lizard, which lives in sand dunes about 30 miles west of Odessa, the Texas Tribune reported. The lizard is just 2.5 inches long and lives in about 4 percent of the 86,000-square-mile Permian Basin. In a 2023 analysis, the Fish and Wildlife Service said the lizard is “functionally extinct” across nearly half of its range.

Unfortunately for the lizard, the Permian Basin is also the home of the state’s biggest oil and gas fields. Earlier this year the Biden administration declared the lizard endangered. Previously, federal regulators said the industry’s expansion was a big threat to the lizard’s survival. Of course, that kind of designation could — as it’s supposed to — deter plucky oil companies who want to drill for dinosaur bones in the area. (The endangered listing means that oil and gas companies have to avoid operating in areas the lizard inhabits, but the exact area is still being determined.)

That means Paxton is doing what he does best: filing a lawsuit. This time, he’s dutifully sued the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Biden administration officials. (I guess you can’t sue lizards yet.)

He called the endangered designation an “unlawful misuse of environmental law” that’s “a backdoor attempt to undermine Texas’s oil and gas industries which help keep the lights on for America.”

We’re pulling for you, little buddy. Sorry you live in such a messed-up state.