Forbes Piece: Biden’s War On Oil And Gas Shifts To A Permian Basin Lizard

[Note: This story is also published at Forbes.com]

As part of a massive, pre-holiday weekend document dump by the Biden administration on June 30, the domestic oil and gas industry received an unwelcome gift from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), one that shifts Mr. Biden’s continuing war on oil and gas to the Permian Basin. In a notice published in the Federal Register, USFWS said it has determined to list the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard, long a topic of concern and controversy, as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act.

Though a day past deadline, the notice of proposed listing will presumably satisfy a court order requiring the agency to issue a decision no later than June 29. It also upends the conduct of a longstanding conservation plan related to the Lizard, agreed-to in the midst of the Barack Obama administration and most recently updated in 2020, the final year of the Trump presidency.

Ben Shepperd, President of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association (PBPA), expressed surprise at the decision in an email. “We are extremely disappointed in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) decision to again list the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard as Endangered in the Permian Basin,” Shepperd said. “In spite of the successful conservation efforts on the ground for over a decade and that less than two years ago approving a conservation plan for the Lizard that all parties agreed would conserve habitat.