Comptroller: $300K to Study the Monarch

Comptroller awarded $300,000 to UT- San Antonio to study the monarch butterfly.

The State insect may soon be on an endangered species list which could cause an economic impact to Texas.

The Comptroller says, if the Monarch is listed as endangered, the following businesses can be affected:

• agriculture
•  land development
• energy production

Here’s the list of species the Comptroller has funded studying:

• Since 2013, $5 million has been appropriated per biennium for endangered species studies
• In 2012, the dunes sagebrush lizard  caused a stir as a potential endangered species, a comptroller report found that if the sagebrush was listed as endangered then:
  • it could imperil 31,195 jobs
  • harm more than $8.2 billion in investments
  • harm almost $12.5 billion in business activity 

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