Endangered Species ‘God Squad’ Convening Accused of Breaking Law

The Interior Department was hit with a lawsuit Wednesday accusing the agency of illegally convening the Endangered Species Committee to waive protections for animals in the Gulf of Mexico in order to allow for more offshore drilling there.

The committee, known as the “God Squad” because of its power to impact the natural world, was called without the public notices or consultation with wildlife agencies that govern offshore drilling’s impacts on endangered species in the region as the Endangered Species Act requires, the Center for Biological Diversity said in a complaint filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced the meeting—the first since 1992—on March 16, the same day the DOI’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved BP PLC‘s $5 billion Kaskida oil project in the Gulf.

The project involves “similar risky drilling” that led to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, the worst oil spill in US history, the complaint said.

“The Secretary’s decision to undertake the exemption process without meeting any of the legal requirements in the ESA for doing so has potentially disastrous consequences,” the lawsuit said.

Gulf oil and gas operations harm a host of imperiled species, including the Rice’s whale, sperm whale, several sea turtle species, and the West Indian manatee, according to the complaint. Last year the National Marine Fisheries Service published an opinion finding future fossil fuel operations in the region will specifically jeopardize the Rice’s whale’s existence, as only 51 remain.

Burgum’s notice of the March 31 meeting violates the Administrative Procedure Act because the notice “provides no indication as to how the public can access any records of the committee,” and the event itself isn’t open to the public and will only be livestreamed on Youtube, the lawsuit alleged.

The group is asking the court to block the meeting and enjoin the committee from issuing any ESA exemptions until the announcement meets the law’s notice and review standards.

The Interior Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Center is represented by in-house counsel.

The case is Ctr. for Biological Diversity v. Burgum, D.D.C., No. 1:26-cv-00940, complaint filed 3/18/26.