What’s up with the lizard?

The Dunes Sagebrush Lizard

From Capitol Report New Mexico.com - In little more than a month, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has to decide whether to place the dunes sagebrush lizard on the federal government’s Endangered Species List. It’s a decision that is sure to inflame oil and gas industry supporters in New Mexico and Texas if the lizard is approved while angering environmentalists if the listing is denied. The Obama administration, sensitive to recent attacks from Republicans on soaring gas prices, seems to be trying to find a compromise. But will that satisfy either camp? The issue is coming back to the forefront as the June 14 deadline nears and in recent days, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Fish and Wildlife Director Dan Ashe have been making the rounds with oil and gas industry officials in the Permian Basin, the site the three-inch reptile calls home amid the shinnery oak in the dry terrain that makes up West Texas and the Oil Patch of New Mexico. Environmentalists say the lizard’s habitat needs to be protected and say the area involved “will have a negligible impact on land owners … even oil and natural gas producers,” Mark Salvo of WildEarth Guardians said in a phone interview with Capitol Report New Mexico. But conservative legislators counter by saying that an endangered species listing could permanently harm the financial health of the area. “Regardless of the claims of this radical environmentalist group, the economic uncertainty caused in the region by this factor alone will have a damaging economic effect,” a spokesman for Congressman Steve Pearce (R-New Mexico) said in an e-mail last year. read more

What’s up with the lizard?