Environmental groups are suing the Trump administration over its decision to exempt oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from compliance with the Endangered Species Act, arguing the move threatens both coastline areas and laws aimed at protecting endangered plants and animals.
A flurry of lawsuits have been filed against the decisions of the Lord’s Squad, officially known as the Endangered Species Commission and made up of several ministers. Six lawsuits have been filed against the decision so far, with both wildlife advocacy groups and a coalition led by the National Wildlife Federation and the National Parks Conservation Association filing lawsuits this week.
The Trump administration’s decision on March 31, stemming from its ability to determine whether development is worth the potential costs for endangered species, marked the first time in decades that a committee known as “God’s Squad” would meet. This comes at the request of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who said potential lawsuits against oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico pose a “national security threat.”
He wrote that endangered species litigation in the Gulf region “has begun to create uncertainty and instability and chill oil and gas development” in the region and could have “dire consequences for our national security” while the country is at war with Iran.
Before the committee took action, U.S. oil production was already at an all-time high.
“The God Squad’s brazen action to exempt federally authorized oil and gas activity in the Gulf from the Endangered Species Act is both illegal and unprecedented,” Andrew Bowman, president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife, said in a statement. “We are in this fight not only to protect endangered species that are currently in grave danger, but also to protect the Endangered Species Act itself, which was enacted to protect America’s common heritage, a legacy that this administration seems hell-bent on destroying.”
White House Press Secretary Taylor Rogers said in a statement that the God Squad “has full authority to grant exemptions” under the Endangered Species Act, adding that the decision was needed “to ensure that America’s energy flow is not disrupted or held hostage.”
Dave Owen, a law professor who studies the Endangered Species Act, said God Squad exemptions under the law are rarely invoked because they are often not needed to advance development, including in the Gulf, where oil and gas drilling has been active throughout the law’s more than 50 years.
“We have an administration that wants to be seen as creating exemptions or limiting the application of environmental laws,” said Owen, of the University of California, San Francisco School of Law. “The government wants to be provocative, so this is an opportunity to grab the headlines for something that can be done. You know, the same results could be produced through the traditional Endangered Species Act compliance process, but I don’t think that’s tangible enough for this administration’s tastes.”
Under Section 7(j) of the Act, the committee has the authority to grant a waiver if the Secretary of Defense indicates a national security risk. Mr Owen said that, although the government made that argument to justify its decision, the exemption was made under Article 7(h), which requires a longer public process, which was not followed in this case.
He said the administration’s claims that there is an energy emergency while halting solar and wind projects could create legal vulnerabilities in the administration’s decisions, not to mention if national security arguments are determined to be arbitrary and capricious.
On Thursday, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) held a press conference with Earthjustice, local Gulf Coast communities and environmental groups to oppose deep-sea drilling in the region.
During the press conference, Mississippi Gulf Coast resident Catherine Eglund recalled witnessing the environmental damage caused in 2010 when the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster became the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, dumping more than 210 million gallons of oil into the ocean. Eleven workers were killed.
“Gulf Coast residents are already among the most disproportionately vulnerable to climate change in our country,” said Egland, a member of the NAACP Board of Directors. “Despite our disproportionate vulnerability to climate change, we continue to be seen as expendable and sacrificed for projects that are harmful to the environment. We are ignored and should not be ignored.”
The spill also killed large numbers of wildlife, including 20 percent of Rice’s whale population.
Only 51 of these whale species remain, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a biological opinion 10 months ago saying a collision with an oil industry vessel in the Gulf of Mexico could jeopardize the survival of the endangered species.
“No one takes seriously the idea that our national defense depends on killing a few rice whales in the Gulf,” Owen said.
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Wyatt Miskow is based in Phoenix and covers drought, biodiversity, and the transition to renewable energy across the western United States and previously reported for the Arizona Republic and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Wyatt has lived in the Southwest since birth and graduated from Arizona State University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.
