The lizard won’t get listed after all.
After nearly two years of back and forth among environmentalists, oil and gas industry supporters and politicians on Capitol Hill, the US Fish and Wildlife Service ruled on Wednesday (June 13) that the dunes sagebrush lizard will not be placed on the federal government’s endangered species list.
In a news [...]

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 [...]

“Hope and change” doesn’t fly that well in the Oil Patch.
And if you throw in a lizard, then President Obama has an uphill battle winning over converts in southeastern New Mexico, where he made a brief stop Wednesday (March 21) as part of a two-day tour to counter sinking poll numbers related to rising gasoline [...]