The debate on whether to list this species as endangered has been rancorous on both sides, with the oil and gas industry opposed to the listing and environmentalists in favor of the listing. The decision was delayed for six months in January so Ashe could further study the data. In the meantime, voluntary conservation agreements that enable private landowners to set aside and preserve lands that the lizard occupies have apparently been working, according to the news report. Those conservation agreements enable private landowners to keep their rights to drill for oil as long as they work to preserve the habitat of the sagebrush lizard, which lives near shinnery oak trees in West Texas and New Mexico.
Approximately 95 percent of the lizard’s shinnery oak habitat in New Mexico has been enrolled in conservation agreements, and 70 percent of the reptile’s habitat in Texas has been enrolled since the plan was announced in February.
You are so correct about the impacts that will occur if Obama’s radical enviro-nutter supporters prevail in this. Our little town here in the oil patch has just over 3% unemployment and help wanted signs are everywhere. Tax redistribution to the county and cities from sales and gross receipt taxes is totaling millions that goes into building infrastructure and improving quality of life. That, of course, is what Obama wants to destroy with his socialist policies.