US Politics

Texas threatens to sue Biden over ‘unlawful, top-down’ eco rules threatening farmers, energy producers

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks outside the Supreme Court on Nov. 1, 2021.

Texas became the latest state Monday threatening to sue the Biden administration over a conservation rule that could harm landowners, farmers and energy producers across five states.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office filed a notice of intent with the Department of the Interior (DOI) and Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) over a recent regulation protecting the Lesser Prairie-Chicken, a species the rule lists as threatened in some parts of Texas and endangered in other regions in the state. The attorney general alleged that the regulation violates federal law, fails to consider the state’s conservation measures and would prove to be onerous for state property owners.

“I will not tolerate the Biden Administration’s efforts to run roughshod over the property rights of Texans and to stop our conservation efforts aimed at protecting Texas wildlife,” Paxton said in a statement.

“This rule was a targeted attempt to implement an unlawful, top-down federal approach aimed at advancing a radical environmentalist agenda, which would crush the type of economic development that aids in providing funds for conservation,” he continued. “This isn’t going to fly in Texas.”

NEARLY 200 GOP LAWMAKERS BLAST BIDEN’S EPA FOR TARGETING FARMERS, RANCHERS: ‘EGREGIOUS FEDERAL OVERREACH’

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks outside the Supreme Court on Nov. 1, 2021. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

According to a release from Paxton’s office, the Endangered Species Act requires the FWS to take a series of steps, including conducting an impact study and considering a wide range of variables, before classifying a species as threatened or endangered. Such federal requirements were never taken before listing the Lesser Prairie-Chicken, according to Paxton.

The rule also threatens “considerable conservation efforts” that stakeholders, led by Texas, private landowners and private groups, have already put in place to protect the chicken species.

“Combining this disregard for federal law, the overly vague nature of the rule, and the failure to abide by the legally-required notice of proposed rulemaking, the new rule constitutes yet another example of the Biden Administration’s willingness to prioritize executive overreach over state-directed management and conservation of wildlife and natural resources,” Paxton’s office stated.

FARMERS SLAM BIDEN OVER LATEST ECO REGULATION TARGETING BUSINESSES: ‘FEDERAL OVERREACH’

Last week, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach similarly announced that…

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