Lawyers and Lizards in the Permian Basin

There's a great amount of money driving up the cost of everything. That's America, baby. Land of the legal hustle.

Dear Fellow Expat:

The United States is not a serious nation.

If the government were a business, you shouldn’t invest.

Last Friday, while you were buying hot dogs and hamburgers, preparing for a holiday to celebrate our independence, we experienced another bout of dirigisme – and a bid to choke off the economic engine.

One of the shining beacons of U.S. economic growth and independence has been the Permian Basin, which accounts for 40% of U.S. oil production and 15% of its natural gas output.

Activists, lawyers, and regulators are ready to tear all that economic engine apart piece by piece.

Over a lizard.

Get Me Off This Rock

In yet another pre-holiday document dump to the Federal Register, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services announced its intention to put the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. This lizard’s natural habitat is in West Texas, an activist’s argument to shut down the American oil-and-gas sector.

Now, let’s just get the obvious part out o…