The Case Of The Lizard And Drilling For Oil

By Semperpapa

It has been all over the news lately. A newly developed technology will allow oil companies to access millions of barrels of oil trapped in the rocks of an area extending from western Texas into eastern New Mexico.

This is a much welcomed development at a time when the American people are being economically impacted by the rising cost of energy. The benefits of accessing such a vast quantity of oil is predicted to translate in a 25% increase of domestic oil production and should also mean a equitable reduction of dependency from foreign energy sources.

Additional benefits, which are systematically ignored by the federal government, are the possibility of impacting the price of crude, the economic development of the areas involved and the creation and maintenance of thousands of good paying jobs.

In a time of such dire economic climate, the development of these oil fields should be a priority on the part of a federal government which is really looking for realistic ways to spur our depressed economy. That would actually make sense, but nothing coming out of Washington actually makes sense any more.

The access to the on-shore domestic oil is being threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife agency, on the basis of a suspiciously flawed report from the Center for Biological Diversity.

The report, which found that oil drilling development would devastate the habitat of the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard, was compiled via what many describe as very limited and unscientific data. The problem comes from the consideration, on the part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife, to place the lizard on the national endangered species list, with devastating consequences for thousands of jobs and national economy.

Interestingly, the counties of Texas and New Mexico that Sceloporus Arenicolus calls home have already seen a vast development of oil exploration, with drilling companies going to great extents to address the protection of the habitat for the little lizard. Drilling operations are also being conducted on both public and private property, so a placement of the creature on the endangered list would effectively bring any activity that may disturb the lizard habitat to a screeching halt.

What we are witnessing here is just another potential intrusion of governmental eco-terrorism into the very life of the American people, something that appears to be a daily occurrence these days.

With the historic record on the part of the current administration to curtail any possibility of American industries to render America less dependent on foreign oil, the decision over this issue from the USFW will be coming down possibly by the end of the year. And thousands of workers are holding their breath as their livelihood rests in the hands of a group of people who have not been elected and against whose decision American workers and businesses practically have no recourse.

In central California, the USFW was able to devastate thousands of jobs and companies by doing the same for a two inch fish, the Sacramento Delta Smelt. To allegedly protect this tiny little fish, the USFW placed it on the endangered list stating that the pumping system that brought water from the Sacramento River to thousands of acres of fertile land in the state had to be shut down.

The result is that thousands of acres of fertile land are now an arid desert; that thousands of farms had to shut down; that thousands of workers lost their jobs; and that much of the products that used to be produced on that land is now imported from abroad. Moreover, the action’s worst victims are those at the bottom of the economic scale, the same folks liberals pretend to champion while instead they sacrifice to the altar of the special interests of a bunch of tree hugging eco-terrorists.

What can be done to avoid a similar occurrence in Texas/New Mexico? I am not confident that there may actually be any remedy we the people can actually bring to this issue, with the exception of placing some pressure upon our representatives in Washington. Unfortunately, I am not too optimistic about any success for such popular action, mostly because of the historic reluctance of politicians to listen to the people.

The uproar from the Sacramento Delta Smelt disaster was fierce, albeit short lived, because the United States Government through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife agency practically gave the people the middle finger and told them to just sit down and shut up.

How easy it must be for a bunch of useless bureaucrats to sit in their plush DC offices enjoying their six digit salaries, or prancing from party to party with the self righteous attitude of being so caring even for the smallest creatures, when they effectively impact the lives of real people, people who work for a living.

The only potential saving grace in the case of the lizard is that the impact of the decision would actually affect not just the local workers and businesses, but it would also have an impact on the national economy. The American people are fed up with the high cost of fuel and the reverberations it has on everything else we purchase, so if the average American is hit in the wallet, the outcry may be loud enough to give a wake up call to politicians in Washington, starting with Obama, regarding the power these agencies have.

One can only hope…

Just my thoughts!