The Trump administration’s Endangered Species Committee, often referred to as the “God Squad,” voted unanimously Tuesday to allow fossil fuel operations in the Gulf of Mexico to bypass protections designed to safeguard endangered species, prompting immediate legal challenges and strong criticism from conservation organizations and public interest advocates.
The committee’s decision grants an exemption from requirements under the Endangered Species Act, one of the nation’s primary legal mechanisms for protecting wildlife facing extinction. The committee has convened only four times since Congress created it nearly five decades ago, highlighting the unusual nature of its sudden use to address offshore oil and gas activity.
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit in Washington, D.C. federal court before the meeting took place. In a court filing last week, the administration confirmed that Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who chairs the Endangered Species Committee, organized the meeting at the request of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The meeting proceeded after a federal judge declined to block it. Although the session was closed-door, it was livestreamed while protesters gathered outside the Department of the Interior building. The night before the vote, Save Our Parks projected messages onto the building reading “Doug Burgum’s Playing God With America’s Public Lands & Wildlife,” “Burgum’s Censoring Science, History, and the Truth,” and “GOD SQUAD ENTER HERE.”
Administration officials framed the decision as tied to energy production and national security. During the meeting, Hegseth told the panel that “when development in the Gulf is chilled, we are prevented from producing the energy we need as a country.”
He also said, “Recent hostile action by the Iranian terror regime highlights yet again why robust domestic oil production is a national security imperative,” adding that the administration’s position on energy production preceded President Donald Trump’s war on Iran, which has contributed to rising gasoline prices.
Environmental groups argued that the national security justification is not supported by evidence and instead reflects an effort to prioritize fossil fuel production over endangered species protections.
Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said the organization intends to challenge the decision in court.
“This amoral action by Pete Hegseth and Trump’s cronies is as horrific as it is illegal, and we’ll overturn it in court,” Hartl said.
He also rejected the administration’s national security claim, stating, “Americans overwhelmingly oppose sacrificing endangered whales and other marine life so the fossil fuel industry can get richer.”
“This has nothing to do with national security and everything to do with Trump and his lackeys kowtowing to Big Oil,” Hartl added.
The exemption affects protections for endangered marine wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico, including the Rice’s whale, a critically endangered species whose habitat overlaps with offshore oil and gas development zones.
Andrew Bowman, president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife, criticized the process leading to the vote.
“In a farcical piece of political theater consisting of high-level officials reading scripted remarks and engaging in zero deliberation, the Trump administration stripped America’s wildlife heritage in the Gulf of Mexico of essential protections. The Endangered Species Act has not slowed an iota of oil from being extracted from the Gulf,” Bowman said.
He warned that the use of national security reasoning does not justify weakening protections for vulnerable wildlife.
“Invoking national security cannot justify potentially pushing the Rice’s whale—or any of our nation’s irreplaceable wildlife species—into the abyss of extinction,” Bowman said.
Bowman also criticized the decision as an abuse of authority.
“This administration cannot recklessly play God with our shared American heritage at Secretary Hegseth’s arbitrary say-so. We will fight this injustice every step of the way,” he said.
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, linked the decision to broader political developments, including the administration’s war in the Middle East and its global economic effects.
“Trump’s attempt to use secret meetings to sidestep the law and end key protections is a dangerous precedent by an unpopular administration that failed to understand the consequences of starting a war in the Middle East,” Gilbert said.
She added that invoking national security to weaken statutory protections could create lasting legal consequences.
“Using ‘national security’ as justification to take shortcuts with legal requirements is a dangerous move with far-reaching implications,” Gilbert said.
Gilbert also argued that the exemption would not meaningfully affect fuel costs for consumers.
“Fossil fuel companies are not requesting this waiver, nor is any other industry—instead the Trump administration is using its war in Iran to justify a power grab that will do nothing to lower the price of fuel here in the US,” she said.
A spokesperson for the American Petroleum Institute welcomed the committee’s vote, highlighting the divide between industry representatives and environmental advocates.
The Endangered Species Committee includes the Interior Secretary along with the secretaries of agriculture and the Army, the administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.
Jayson O’Neill, spokesperson for Save Our Parks, criticized Burgum’s leadership and accused the administration of disregarding scientific input and public participation.
“Burgum has a ‘god complex’ over America’s parks, public lands, and wildlife. Throughout his entire tenure in the DC swamp, Burgum has used the heavy hand of government to muzzle the truth, limit public participation, strip science from decisions, and even whitewash and censor our history,” O’Neill said.
“Now, Burgum and his so-called ‘God Squad’ are continuing this failed leadership, ignoring science and public opinion to serve the interests of his buddies in the oil industry,” he added. “Burgum’s censorship is as unpopular as it is un-American.”
Environmental advocates emphasized that Endangered Species Act protections have historically existed alongside oil production in the Gulf, raising questions about whether the exemption addresses any genuine constraint on energy output.
Legal experts expect the updated lawsuit from the Center for Biological Diversity to focus on whether the administration improperly invoked national security claims to bypass legal requirements under environmental law. The litigation may determine whether the exemption can withstand judicial scrutiny and whether similar uses of the Endangered Species Committee could occur in the future.
Because the Endangered Species Committee has been convened so rarely, the decision may shape how federal agencies approach conflicts between industrial development and endangered species protections going forward.
Bowman said the legal challenge will continue.
“This administration cannot recklessly play God with our shared American heritage at Secretary Hegseth’s arbitrary say-so. We will fight this injustice every step of the way.”
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