The tiny reptile testing the “drill, baby, drill” agenda

The dunes sagebrush lizard lives in the Permian Basin , the largest oil-producing region in the country.

The lizard was listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act last spring .

Environmental advocates fear that federal protections for this lizard, which were decades in the making, are at risk.

The lizard is in a position for being used as a rationale that the Endangered Species Act is bad, an expert says.

President Trump has not made specific comments about the lizard, but he aims to make it easier to exploit important wildlife habitat for oil and gas.

The president signaled that his government may use what he spuriously called a “national energy emergency” to bypass the standard protocols to protect wildlife.

Texas is suing the Fish and Wildlife Service for listing the lizard as endangered.

Lawsuit alleges that the federal government did not fully consider existing voluntary agreements by companies to conserve the lizard.

Lawsuits could take years to decide whether the lizard should be listed as endangered or delisted.

It's likely that the government will reconsider the listing.