Saving Seafood

Greens see chance to protect species in ‘God Squad’ fight

April 14, 2026 — The Trump administration’s move to exempt oil and gas activities in the Gulf of Mexico from endangered species considerations could hand environmentalists a public engagement opportunity, although one they would prefer not to have.

The use of the so-called God Squad last month to grant a more than 600,000-square-mile exemption for the oil industry puts the spotlight on the kind of charismatic species — whales and sea turtles — that not only conservationists but the general public hold dear. In particular, it highlights the plight of the Rice’s whale, which has only a few dozen of its kind left.

“This action by the Trump administration may prove to be a galvanizing moment for a whole new generation of advocates and voters who support the Endangered Species Act and the wildlife and ecosystems it protects,” said Ben Greuel, national wildlife campaign manager at the Sierra Club.

Read the full article at E&E News

The ‘God Squad’ Waives Environmental Rules for Offshore Drilling

April 1, 2026 — A powerful panel of Trump administration officials voted unanimously on Tuesday to exempt oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from measures to protect endangered whales and other imperiled species.

The panel, the Endangered Species Committee, a high-level group that is often called the God Squad because it essentially holds the power to decide whether a species lives or dies, adopted the move during a brief, closed-door meeting at the Interior Department.

Until Tuesday, the God Squad had convened only three times, and never in the past three decades.

It was the Trump administration’s latest move to weaken the Endangered Species Act, the bedrock environmental law intended to prevent plant and animal extinctions. In November, the administration proposed to relax restrictions on drilling, logging and mining in critical habitats for endangered species across the country.

To justify the sweeping decision on Tuesday, administration officials said that protections for endangered species had hindered oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, which President Trump calls the Gulf of America. They said that lifting these protections would increase domestic energy supplies and bolster national security.

“When development in the Gulf is chilled, we are prevented from producing the energy we need as a country,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at the meeting.

“Recent hostile action by the Iranian terror regime highlights yet again why robust domestic oil production is a national security imperative,” Mr. Hegseth said, although he clarified that these concerns predated the Middle East war and the resulting spike in gasoline prices.

The United States is the world’s biggest producer of oil and gas, and the Gulf accounts for about 15 percent of U.S. crude oil output.

Read the full article at The New York Times

Rice’s whale faces extinction risk as ‘God Squad’ considers oil exemption

March 27, 2026 — On March 31, the “God Squad” of endangered species in the U.S. will convene for the first time in more than 30 years

They will discuss whether to exempt oil and gas activities in the Gulf of Mexico from Endangered Species Act protections—a move that could make the Rice’s Whale extinct, activists claim.

But the U.S. Government says the move is needed for national security purposes.

Read the full article at AL.com

Administration to Convene ‘God Squad’ With Power to Override Environmental Law

March 18, 2026 — The Trump administration plans to convene the so-called God Squad, a high-level federal panel that has the power to override protections under the Endangered Species Act, for a meeting related to oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico.

The meeting, scheduled for March 31, will be the first time in three decades that the group, officially called the Endangered Species Committee, will gather.

Notice of the meeting was released on Friday and officially published in the Federal Register on Monday. The Gulf, which the administration calls the Gulf of America, is home to the critically endangered Rice’s whale, a species that exists nowhere else. According to the latest available federal estimates, around 50 of the animals remain on Earth.

Information in the notice announcing the meeting, called by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, is sparse.

“The Committee is meeting regarding an exemption under the Endangered Species Act with respect to oil and gas exploration, development, and production activities in the Gulf of America associated with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Program,” the notice states.

When emailed for additional information on what had prompted the move, the Interior Department declined to directly answer questions and repeated the published information. But President Trump has wanted the God Squad to convene since he returned to office last year.

Read the full article at The New York Times