A 2023 analysis found that the dunes sagebrush lizard is "functionally extinct" across 47 percent of its habitat.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) is suing the Biden administration for classifying the dunes sagebrush lizard in May as an endangered species. The big picture: The sand-burrowing lizard is native to a portion of the oil-and-gas-rich Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico and Paxton in a statement Monday called the designation an "unlawful misuse of environmental law" and a "backdoor attempt to undermine Texas's oil and gas industries.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration Monday after it declared a rare lizard endangered earlier this year. Paxton, a Republican, is suing the Department of the Interior, the U.