I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
The Wall Street Journal reports on the battle over the dunes sagebrush lizard inhabiting Southeast New Mexico and West Texas, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering putting on the Endangered Species List:
“This is the most prolific oil-producing region in onshore America,” said Ben Shepperd, president of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association, an industry group in Midland, Texas. “If you are to knock out a big portion of that, it clearly would drive prices up at the gasoline pump.”
The battle over the lizard is the latest example of the industry-versus-creature conflicts generated when species are slated for the endangered or threatened list. Northwest loggers failed to stop the northern spotted owl from being designated as threatened in 1990, and California winemakers have clashed with water-management officials over conservation measures to protect certain salmon.
In the fight over the lizard, though, there is some rare cooperation between federal officials and industry: Some companies are paying for conservation efforts in advance to minimize the impact a listing would have on their businesses, even as they continue to oppose such a decision.
Politicians suggest dire consequences if the lizard is subject to the Endangered Species Act. In New Mexico, Republican Gov. Susana Martinez warned Fish and Wildlife officials in a May letter that “the future of our state’s economy and livelihood of so many employers and hardworking New Mexicans are at stake.”
That is overstating it, environmentalists say, pointing out that the lizard’s habitat takes up just a fraction of the eight counties where the species is found. For example, the lizards occupy 600,000 acres out of the total 11 million acres in the four New Mexico counties that would be affected.
Given how large the area in question is, it seems that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and industry can work this out.
