AUSTIN – Kathleen Hartnett White, Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Armstrong Center for Energy and the Environment at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, issued the following statement on Tuesday’s ruling by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to uphold the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s June 2012 decision not to list the dunes sagebrush lizard as endangered:
“The court’s decision shows that Texas can successfully resist efforts by environmentalists to use the Endangered Species Act to hobble development of the state’s energy resources,” said White. “Texas has shown that a multi-faceted approach, including private conservation plans that protect the confidentiality of landowners, can do a better job of protecting the dunes sagebrush lizard’s habitat while allowing continued oil and gas production than can a single centralized plan.”
Kathleen Hartnett White earlier this year penned a commentary in the Austin American-Statesman on the expansion of the Endangered Species Act in Texas.
Kathleen Hartnett White is a Distinguished Senior Fellow-in-Residence and the Director for the Armstrong Center for Energy & the Environment. Former Chairman for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (2001-2007).
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin, Texas.