Sand Dune Lizard Could Cost Jobs in Texas If Added to Endangered Species List

Source: ABC News

The sand dune lizard is a small reptile that has become the scourge of the Texas Oil industry, not because it is dangerous but because the threatened species could put land ripe for oil exploration off limits.

"As far as I am concerned, it is Godzilla," Texas land commissioner Jerry Paterson told ABC News. " the biggest threat facing the oil business in memory," said Ben Shepperd, president of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association. They believe the small tan-colored, insectivorous lizard could cost the oil industry and surrounding communities thousands of jobs.

About 63,000 Americans work in the oil and gas well industry as of September 2009, the most recent period available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages program. Most of those jobs are in Texas.

The federal government said the sand lizard is on the verge of extinction, and is expected to place it on the endangered species list soon.



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/sand-dune-lizard-cost-jobs-texas-added-endangered/story?id=13726850

It's always the natural world...

Hey, it worked the first time.

Meetings and write-ups every other day.

Here's one story.

http://www.mywesttexas.com/business/oil/article_31890b84-8bd4-11e0-a801-001cc4c002e0.html

How come I never see the "Jobs-Vs.-Planet" headlines phrased that way?

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Come back when you have something substantial.

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You're comparing Jobs in general to Species in specific.

Let's try it this way...
Which is more important to you, Oil-Drilling Jobs in Texas or Sand Dune Lizards?

Which is more important to you, Old-Growth Clearcutting Jobs on the Oregon coast or Spotted Owls?

Which is more important to you, Ivory Export Jobs in Africa or African Elephants?

Or we can go the other way, too, if you prefer...
Which is more important to you, Jobs or Biodiversity?

Personally? I'd take biodiversity every time.

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including "oil drilling jobs in Texas".

especially about "oil drilling jobs in Texas"

a cross-the-board uncompromising attitude toward biodiversity will surely doom the planet and then we won't need any jobs, oil or other.

as the spotted owl had to do with loss of lumber jobs in the Pacific Northwest.

The industry is already in collapse because of unsustainable business practices and they want the blame to go to somewhere other than themselves.

If the lizards and oil aren't where the Good Lord left 'em we all go to hell.

If one or the other is missing we're left in limbo.

If both the oil and the lizards are where the Good Lord left 'em we'll all be saved.

So the real question is jobs or our eternal souls.

That's the devil for you, always asking us to trade our souls for money.

And you better pick a liveable planet each and every time, or eventually there will BE no corporations, nor humans to run them and buy their products.

how many other species are you willing to roll the dice on for a dying industry?

F' big oil.

Did it ever cross your mind that critters may be there for a reason that doesn't involve oil profits?

"I got mine, fuck you all".

bravo, my friend, bravo.

:rolleyes:

n/t

Unknown. But it certainly doesn't require oil.

are more important then jobs....

rather than destroying the natural world to suck up to oil companies yet again?

There's another headline you'll never see.

:sarcasm:

:P

covered with attractive oil wells, spilling and stuff. Then when there is no more oil, oh then we just bring all the lizards, and vegetation back.

I mean besides everybody.

with a tan lizard. I think it would ruin my fuel system.

:woohoo:

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Clown.

for obvious reasons.

:popcorn:

Sure. I'm sure that will outrage them . . or whatever.

While I'm at it I could tell MADD that car wrecks are more common on roads than in outer space. I'm sure that will infuriate them.

not plastics.

the world existed millions of years without it.

which was written by the American Petroleum Industry.

i'll let you figure out who it is.

When their ability to do business in an area is threatened or when there's the threat of new regulations, suddenly they're all for the poor downtrodden working man. The rest of the time they're doing everything they can to eliminate or outsource American jobs.

Excuse me if I'm skeptical of their "concern".

Oil is a necessary, needed, used, abused, life saving, life threatening evil. I believe we need it, it is better for low income people if it is less expensive. Since we will have oil, doesn't it make sense to have the oil industry concentrated in places that have it already, want it, have the infrastructure to deal with it including the people who are willing to deal with it.

I've been through Texas. There is so much open space that it is numbs you. My solution is make the oil companies that benefit from threatening the lizard set up breeding programs and populate the areas that are away from the wells. I have to think that the lizard domain is limited to few square miles. Plenty of room for both.

no well will go undrilled over a lizard, they're just posturing in hopes of getting off cheap

jobs will be created, when the lizards are properly managed and monitored -- but the oil companies would rather the taxpayer pay for it, rather than the oil companies, so they're creating a big fuss out of nothing

at the end of the day, though, we're talking lizards, a couple of grad students getting paid $8K a year and a few pieces of land set=asides will take care of the whole problem and it won't cost much either

Everything is always the biggest threat to them.

Next time someone says Obama or liberals are the biggest threat to domestic oil I can say "I thought it was Godzilla."

your prize: 1 internet, slightly used

because of any animal or regulation thereof. I live in, and grew up in, the middle of the largest oilfield in North America, right here in the Permian Basin in west Texas, where all of this bull-shit story started.

Let me just point out one thing: we never heard word one about any kind of environmental "problem" threatening the industry UNTIL someone noticed that oil companies just made more money in the last year than they've ever made in the history of the universe AND when someone suggested that we quit giving these giant, uber-profitable companies the actual SUBSIDY of $4 BILLION a year that they receive from the rest of the taxpayers.

So the welfare-oilers went into a tizzy and found some shit to bitch about! Oh NOESSSS! This lizard means the terrorists win!!!??? When you have congress critters in the area like Mike Conaway, who was the accountant for GW Bush's Arbusto Petroleum, and whose aide has the license plate WTF44 on his car, you don't have to look far to see where the stench is coming from.

TAKE AWAY their subsidy and tax those motherfuckers! They pay so little to the state in taxes that 100,000 teachers are going to lose their jobs in Texas alone. So leave the lizards alone and smack the ugly, greedy, huge welfare-oilers right in their wallet!

then there aren't all that many of them, so given the modern miracle of "directional drilling" they should not be that tough to avoid. I expect it is the expense of hiring herpetologists to inspect for them, and the time to do the study that is the cause for "concern". In my experience, herpetologists aren't all that expensive, by oil industry standards.

If they are endangered, then they probably have been extirpated from some portion of their historic range. If push comes to shove, drift fence them into pitfall traps and relocate them to these areas. A bit of genetic drift can be good for such species.

All it means is that the current method of extracting oil in Texas is too environmentally damaging to continue, and they have to clean it up. This will provide new jobs updating the technology, and probably the same old jobs running it.

But it's a false dichotomy - if you're presented with 'jobs or nature', the correct answer is nearly always "remove from power the people who are forcing that choice on you".

I'm so sick of hearing arguements put this way and MORE than sick of the idiots that try to defend it. It is only framed this way to enrage the fringe elements of the republican party.

> But it's a false dichotomy - if you're presented with 'jobs or nature',
> the correct answer is nearly always "remove from power the people who
> are forcing that choice on you".

:applause:

That would make a great sig line.

that's a good line to run on right now.

"Hey you lazy bum, just go get a job!"

WTF?? I guess all those unemployed are just lazy. And having your job move overseas is not that big of a deal, after all people can always get other jobs.

On a less snarky note…how about the Government setting aside a few square miles as a lizard habitat and allow drilling? Lots of jobs and revenue from the jobs, and the lizards are protected. Every thing does not have to be a I win, you lose deal.



Macoy

... and it looks like a lot of people just don't understand that
driving a creature extinct - especially when there are plenty of
alternatives to that choice - is a neither ethical nor admirable
thing to do ...

c'mon, there is no reason you can't drill for oil and have lizards, the oil co. just doesn't feel like paying for the extra work to monitor the lizards, pay for habitat restoration or minimal disturbance of habitat and so on

show me one well that won't be drilled because of a lizard, i don't think you can

biologists work cheap, and if the oil companies have to pay for an extra biologist or two, that doesn't mean they're going to fire a geologist ... they're making BILLIONS in profit, they can afford to do the right thing, drill in a clean manner, and still make plenty of profit

tired of the scare mongering because the oil companies want to hog EVERY fucking penny in the country

take care of the goddamn endangered species and stop the damn whining, sheesh

same type of creeps who yelled that making the cockaded woodpecker an endangered species would stop them from cutting trees, and yet the trees get logged on schedule and plenty of money is being made cutting down trees, it just means that there are a few parks and management jobs for the woodpeckers and the people who like to be outdoors...they can throw us this little bone from time to time, it's pennies to them

literally we are talking "lizard poop" here, there is no evidence at all this lizard will interfere with jobs

sure, there will be some more paperwork but the guy who fills out the paperwork needs a job too...extra "compliance" issues can mean extra jobs for lawyers, etc...the oil company can damn well afford to provide those jobs...it is the most profitable industry of all time in the entire UNIVERSE, they can toss a few pennies at a rare lizard

"Sand Dune Lizard, Key to Cancer Cure, Hunted to Extinction"

Give humanity a way to shoot themselves in the collective foot (and/or head) and they'll do it every time ;)