SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN
Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A small lizard found among the dunes straddling New Mexico and West Texas in one of the nation's richest oil basins is at the center of a legal complaint filed Tuesday.
Environmentalists want the U.S. government to add the lizard to the endangered species list as part of a fight that stretches back to the Bush and Obama administrations and could affect part of the multibillion-dollar energy industry in the Permian Basin.
The Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife filed the complaint in federal court in Washington. It follows a listing petition that the groups submitted in May 2018.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had 90 days to consider the petition and initiate a review of the species if necessary,
