Paxton, a Republican, said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service relied on faulty data and arbitrary assumptions about the lizard's future in adopting a final rule on May 20 declaring the animal endangered.

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.