Posted on 05/03/2011 5:21:51 AM PDT by WFTR
The dune sagebrush lizard is a 3-inch critter that lives only among stands of shinnery oak, which itself is a somewhat rare tree that lives only in the sandy soil on something like 4 million acres spread between Roswell, New Mexico and Midland, Texas. The area around Midland is known as the Permian Basin, and is one of the oldest and most prolific crude oil regions in North America.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.forbes.com ...
I strongly suspect that oil and gas exploration would be no (zero) threat to the habitat and population of this lizard. The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has been putting extremist (animal rights and environmentalist) politics ahead of science in a number of cases. If the lizards were really going to be endangered, they maybe, repeat MAYBE, would have some case for mitigation steps, but this whole exercise is likely another exercise in false or incomplete data being used to justify an agenda.
Please, urge your representatives to ask the House Natural Resources Committee to convene oversight hearings on all actions of the USFWS. Those of us who keep reptiles as pets are already seeking these kinds of hearings regarding a rule to put nine constrictors on the Lacey Act. You may not like us. You may not like our pets, but we can provide another set of witnesses to the use of false "science" by this agency to push an extremist agenda. If the committee will convene hearings and hear from witnesses on several issues, we have an even greater chance of showing that USFWS is acting wrongly without scientific basis. We have a better chance of stopping all of their partisan overreaching.
We have a legitimate means to stop this kind of action. That means is Congressional oversight. We need to do more than complain on Free Republic, Facebook, and other places on the web. We need to insist that our representatives exercise this oversight.
Saying that we need just to kill them all won't stop this nonsense. Showing that the "science" behind what USFWS is doing is deeply flawed would be a good step towards stopping the destructive, partisan actions of this out of control bureaucracy.
You probably know, but I'll repeat this fact. USFWS is under the Interior Department. Ken Salazar, former senator from Colorado, is the Secretary of the Interior. When he was in the Senate, he was arguing in favor of some environmental extremist policy. He said that even if the policy caused $10/gallon gasoline, he would support the policy. His agency is playing games with small businesses, big businesses, pet owners, and anyone who drives a car. We need Congress to exercise oversight and put this agency on a very short leash.
Thanks for your help.
This is absolute insanity!
IMO, what really needs to happen is a repeal of the Endangered Species Act or at least a major amendment that restricts jurisdiction, separate species determinations, and requires that economic impact be included in any determinations.
Plus this administration will do everything it can to stop the XL pipeline from Canada, and potentially outlaw hydraulic fracking in North Dakota and Montana. These people are doing everything in their power to shut down the USA.
So if this lizard for whatever reason becomes extinct ...what would be the consequences? Species have become extinct since the very beginning of life on this planet. It is the natural order of things. While these lizards should not be deliberately killed, they have been living with oil drilling for decades and are still here.
Back in the 50’s all the land around Leveland Tex. was mesquite covered. When the soil bank came along they cleared the land and planted cotton. As soon as they could then they put it in the soil bank. The lizard didn’t mind.
Lizards adapt. That’s why they are still here and their dinosaur ancestors are not...........They will probably thrive around oil rigs. People eat lunch and make garbage. That draws flies. Lizard heaven..............
We need to drain the lizard on the EPA............
Just another Spotted Owl hoax being used by the environazis.
God Bless Our Troops
Texas and N.M. should tell the EPA to shove it up their smelly Obamas.
And let any EPA butthole that appears near those wells fear for their lives.
This is serious.
Lizard Ping.
Thanks folks! Let’s contact our members of Congress. We need that Congressional oversight.
Yup. These econuts apparently think dropping some drilling rigs in four MILLION acres of land is equivalent to carpet bombing the entire area.
Or rather they act like it in order to gut the US energy sector. Why? Because they aren’t (just) econuts, their marxist scum who want to destroy the US economy (thinking they’ll be immune to the results).
/spit
And Congress? Anyone still believe most of those jerks give a d#mn what we think? Then I’ve got some prime land on Mars to sell you!
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I like lizards, my wife likes lizards. We had one for years. But Im not walking 10 miles to work everyday for the sake of a LIZARD!!!!!!!
What, we humans should go extinct so the lizard can live? It sounds like a hallucinogenic dream that Jim Morrison had in the desert after eating some jimson weed. Did the plan to save the lizard come from the group VHEMT?
Bunk. The aliens seeded the lizard in Roswell so we wouldn’t dig up their secret base.
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