A judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas recently vacated protections of the lesser prairie-chicken (LPC) under the Endangered Species Act. The ruling was a victory for the Lone Star State, its landowners and the energy and ranching industries, all of which have successfully protected and strengthened the LPC’s population over the past decade, without costly or burdensome federal regulations. The ruling was remanded to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which in 2022 listed the bird as endangered in the Permian Basin oil fields but threatened in the northeast Texas panhandle, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Colorado.

Energy industry and state leaders had long argued that the prairie chicken’s listing under the ESA was an “overreach” aimed at hampering oil and gas production in the Permian, America’s most prolific oil field.

“These listings were completely misguided, ignoring the vigilant conservation efforts already underway in West Texas,” Congressman August Pfluger (TX-11) said. “This week, a district court confirmed what we’ve been saying all along and rightfully struck down the listing, ruling that a ‘foundational error’ was made.”

According to state leaders, the listing had little to do with actually protecting the species. Instead, they argued it failed to account for private and state partnerships that the energy and ranching industries voluntarily launched in 2014. This is not the first time the lesser prairie-chicken has been subject to regulatory back and forth. That same year, the species was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, but the designation was vacated in 2015 after a legal challenge from the Permian Basin Petroleum Association and several New Mexico counties.  

Despite these legal shifts, voluntary conservation measures have continued. Industry and landowner partnerships enrolled more than nine million acres into conservation plans and oil and gas companies committed over $50 million to fund conservation and restoration programs for the LPC.

The prairie chicken isn’t the only species that Texas has dedicated resources to conserving; in fact, the Texas Legislature has appropriated over $34 million since 2013 to the Habitat Protection Fund through 2027. Created to support the development and coordination of habitat conservation plans, the fund’s resources are used to pay the costs associated with implementing and monitoring habitat research as well as researching and labeling species as threatened or endangered.

This funding is in addition to the extensive work the oil and gas industry is doing to conserve the environment and critical habitats in the Permian. These measures are in place today, highlighting the responsible practices operators are undertaking to minimize the environmental impacts. Where applicable, operators employ practices such as:

• Enacting environmental land use standards that guide operators in designing projects and facilities that minimize environmental and socioeconomic impacts.
• Placing wells in locations that avoid sensitive habitats, erosion-prone areas, permanent and/or seasonal water features, or other areas of high ecosystem value.
• Using advanced drilling technology, such as horizontal and directional drilling, to reduce environmental footprints and limit surface disturbances.
• Minimizing surface impacts by consolidating infrastructure.
• Working with stakeholders to plant native vegetation.

“Oil and gas operators in the Lone Star State have delivered on their promise to be good stewards of the land as shown in the LPC’s population growth since 2014,” Ed Longanecker, President of Texas Independent Petroleum Producers and Royalty Owners said. “The LPC’s listing on the endangered species list would have done little in the way of conservation, while adding costly and burdensome regulations to energy production and jeopardizing American jobs and energy security.”

Success in caring for endangered and threatened species was underscored in a 2020 Annual Report by the American Conservation Foundation that acknowledged that less than 20 percent of the allowed habitat acres had been disturbed by participants in the Texas Conservation Plan (TCP) for the Dune Sagebrush Lizard. Despite these successes, the lizard was listed as endangered in May 2024 under the Biden Administration.

A species listing, like the prairie chickens, could have entirely blocked or required additional permits for energy projects, adding costly, timely and unpredictable permitting requirements to the buildout of infrastructure at a time when energy demand is skyrocketing and global geopolitical tensions are heightened.

In 2023, the States of Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, ranchers associations and oil and gas groups, sued over the LPC’s split listing as endangered and threatened, arguing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) relied on inconsistent data and unjustified population divisions. Reinforcing the pattern seen a decade ago where the species has been caught in a cycle of listing and delisting. FWS now plans to reevaluate the LPC’s status by November 2026, prolonging uncertainty for stakeholders.    

“The energy industry remains committed to protecting the flora, fauna, and native species that make up the landscape and heritage of our great state,” Longanecker continued. “Producers and operators have successfully met the challenge of producing more, emitting less, being responsible stewards of Texas’ natural resources, and ensuring Americans have access to affordable and reliable energy.” 

Energy producers are proud to lead the charge in environmental conservation, fully aware that our country’s economic prosperity is linked to the health and conservation of our land.