‘God squad’ waives endangered species law to allow US drilling in Gulf of Mexico

A Rice's whale, of which only around 51 remain, swims off the coast of Texas in the Gulf of Mexico in 2024. Photograph: Paul Nagelkirk/NOAA via AP View image in fullscreen A Rice's whale, of which only around 51 remain, swims off the coast of Texas in the Gulf of Mexico in 2024. Photograph: Paul Nagelkirk/NOAA via AP ‘God squad’ waives endangered species law to allow US drilling in Gulf of Mexico Critics say exemption for fossil fuels exploits White House’s ‘self-made gas crisis’, and could doom the rare Rice’s whale Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox A US government panel on Tuesday exempted oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from the Endangered Species Act (ESA), a move which critics say could doom a rare whale species and harm other marine life . The Endangered Species Committee – which had not convened in more than three decades – voted to approve the request for the ESA exemption at the request of the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth . Hegseth has said environmentalists’ lawsuits against the industry threatened to hobble the nation’s energy supply, while environmentalists fear drilling could kill off protected species including Rice’s whales, whooping cranes and sea turtles. Only about 51 Rice’s whales remain, and they and other wildlife are largely on the brink of extinction because of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig spill , which devastated the gulf when it leaked about 210m gallons. Rise of the shrubs: what happened when scientists heated a Rocky Mountain wildlife meadow by 2C? Read more Nicknamed the “God squad” by groups who say it can decide a species’ fate, the committee includes several Trump administration officials and is chaired by the interior secretary, Doug Burgum. Burgum, Hegseth and five other panel members unanimously voted for the exemption. Steve Mashuda, attorney for the non-profit environmental law organization Earthjustice, criticized the move. “The Trump administration is exploiting its self-made gas crisis to get rid of protections for endangered whales and other imperiled species in the Gulf of Mexico,” he said. “Secretary Hegseth and his extinction committee claim this will eventually cut costs for cash-strapped Americans, but gulf communities know what unrestrained drilling will really bring: devastating oil spills and the destruction of ecosystems and coastal economies. Earthjustice and our partners will go to court to stop this illegal order.” Donald Trump has made increased fossil fuel production a central focus of his second term. He wants to open new areas of the gulf off the Florida coast to drilling, and has proposed sweeping rollbacks of environmental regulations disliked by industry. Hegseth notified Burgum on 13 March that an ESA exemption for oil and gas drilling in the gulf was “necessary for reasons of national security”, according to a court filing from the administration. The request came amid global oil shocks and soaring energy prices brought on