Trump’s ‘God Squad’ Exempts Gulf Drilling From Species Act (1)

The Endangered Species Committee, or “God Squad,” unanimously granted all Gulf of Mexico oil and gas operations an exemption from the Endangered Species Act Tuesday at the request of the Pentagon, leaving numerous imperiled species vulnerable to fossil fuels development.

The unprecedented decision was granted after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth determined the law jeopardizes national security because it impedes oil and gas production in the Gulf.

Unspecified Endangered Species Act litigation threatens to shut down all oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, including 15% of all US crude oil, and is a matter of “urgent national security,” Hegseth said at the meeting.

The committee blamed environmental groups for filing lawsuits seeking to halt oil and gas development, making it necessary to grant the exemption.

“Considering this litigation, it’s essential to our national security to exempt all oil and gas activities from the Endangered Species Act requirements,” Hegseth said.

The committee didn’t deliberate during the meeting, instead each member stated why they supported the exemption before voting. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said it’s required under the ESA to grant an exemption if Hegseth finds endangered species protections pose a national security threat.

The Interior Department didn’t immediately release Hegseth’s findings, which were distributed to each committee member, showing that the Endangered Species Act poses a national security threat. By law, all records associated with the committee are to be public.

Burgum chairs the committee, called the “God Squad” because it can decide to allow an imperiled species to go extinct. Tuesday’s meeting was its first since 1992.

“NGOs plan to block all projects,” said Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, a member of the committee.

“As head of the Environmental Protection Agency, I’m concerned that this litigious environment threatens actions needed to maintain well and pipeline conditions and operations,” he said.

Burgum later issued a statement saying “critical energy operations” shouldn’t be “jeopardized by the threat of disruptive litigation.”

Environmental groups have filed multiple lawsuits challenging offshore oil and gas in the Gulf, and a judge last year ruled against an oil and gas lease sale there after groups said it threatened marine life. But no court has halted all oil and gas production there.

A federal lawsuit filed in 2025 by the Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, and several other groups challenged a National Marine Fisheries Service opinion that oil and gas operations won’t harm certain Gulf species, except the Rice’s whale. About 51 of the whales remain.

The US District Court for the District of Maryland has not ruled in the case.

However, environmental groups have scored some wins against endangered species regulatory rollbacks. On Monday, the US District Court for the Northern District of California vacated several regulations from the first Trump administration focused on critical habitat designations for agency consultations over endangered species.

The Center for Biological Diversity called the committee’s Tuesday decision “horrific as it is illegal,” and pledged to overturn it in court. The God Squad “used the pretext of ‘national security’ to justify this exemption, which will likely drive the extremely endangered Rice’s whale to extinction,” the Center said in a statement.

The American Petroleum Institute applauded the committee’s decision.

“Our industry has a long track record of protecting wildlife while developing offshore energy responsibly,” API spokeswoman Andrea Woods said. “Over the long term, American energy leadership depends on getting that balance right through reasonable, science-based protections while meeting growing energy demand.”

President Donald Trump has repeatedly called on the Endangered Species Committee to advance oil and gas development and logging as part of his larger agenda to roll back endangered species protections and regulations that stand in the way of development.

At least three executive orders in 2025 called on the committee to meet, including to support Trump’s national energy emergency declaration, promote logging, and expedite commercial spaceport development.

The God Squad only once successfully reduced endangered species protections. The committee in 1979 exempted a Wyoming dam project from the endangered species safeguards for the whooping crane. The committee’s 1992 decision to exempt the northern spotted owl from certain timber sales didn’t stand because the Clinton administration withdrew its request for the exemption.

The Sierra Club has received funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable organization founded by Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg Law is operated by entities controlled by Michael Bloomberg.