Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration and federal environmental and wildlife officials Monday to challenge the endangered species listing of the dunes sagebrush lizard, which lives in the heart of Texas oil country.

The lawsuit claims federal regulators have undermined the Texas oil and gas industry by misusing environmental law, negatively impacting drilling and production.

The dunes sagebrush lizard have lost more than 95% of their habitat to sand mining and oil and gas development, officials say.

Paxton, a Republican, said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service relied on faulty data and arbitrary assumptions about the lizard's future in adopting a final rule on May 20 declaring the animal endangered.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) is suing the Biden administration for classifying the dunes sagebrush lizard in May as an endangered species. The big picture: The sand-burrowing lizard is native to a portion of the oil-and-gas-rich Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico and Paxton in a statement Monday called the designation an "unlawful misuse of environmental law" and a "backdoor attempt to undermine Texas's oil and gas industries.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration Monday after it declared a rare lizard endangered earlier this year. Paxton, a Republican, is suing the Department of the Interior, the U.