Happy Thursday!
We love an update! In early April 2023, we blogged on how there
was a legal battle in Texas over the lesser prairie chicken being moved again to
the endangered species list. This wasn’t
the first time the lesser prairie chicken was a cause of a legal battle back in
2014, the last time it was moved to the list many of the same players
challenged it including the State of Texas and they were able to remove the
populations from the list. Well, the
final results are in!
Did anyone
happen to read the Oil & Gas Journal’s OGJ Daily Update Newsletter on
August 14, 2025, their article titled, “Federal court ends protections for the
lesser prairie chicken”? In the article,
it speaks on how a U.S District Judge for the Western District of Texas ruled
in favor of the plaintiffs by removing the lesser prairie chickens from the endangered
and threatened species list as well as remove their protections from the
Endangered Species Act (ESA). The
federal judge’s decision ruled the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS)
misapplied the ESA to the lesser prairie chicken’s northern (threatened) and
southern (endangered) populations and therefore the listings should be removed
and protections lifted. In addition, earlier this year the current
administration’s FWS reapplied the Discrete Population Segment (DPS) policy and
did not find the designation was warranted or justified. Well, this ends the saga of the lesser
prairie chickens’ northern and southern populations, at least for now and the
oil and gas industry may go back to business as usual where these birds live. If you would like to read more of Oil and
Gas Journal’s article, please click the link: Federal
court ends protections for lesser prairie chicken | Oil & Gas Journal.
If you would
like help in looking into how to transport your product more efficiently and
with less of a carbon footprint or you would like to update your equipment to make
it more efficient with less emissions, contact us via the email in the Blog and
check out our ESC website!
We hope you have a wonderful evening and a great week!
**Disclaimer: You may be charged a fee to read the Oil
and Gas Journal’s article. **