US God squad exempts Gulf drilling from endangered species rules

A rarely used US federal panel known informally as the “God squad” voted on March 31 to exempt oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from key Endangered Species Act requirements, according to The Guardian. The Endangered Species Committee, which has not convened in more than three decades, approved the exemption after a request from defense secretary Pete Hegseth.

The case was framed as national security rather than energy policy. Hegseth argued that litigation from environmental groups could “chill” Gulf production at a moment when global oil markets are being disrupted by the Iran war and shipping risks around the Strait of Hormuz. The committee—chaired by interior secretary Doug Burgum—voted unanimously, a decision environmental lawyers said they would challenge in court.

The immediate target is not a single well but a legal constraint. The Endangered Species Act forces federal agencies to consult on harms to protected wildlife and, in some cases, to limit or redesign projects. The exemption mechanism exists for situations where the government claims the economic or security costs of compliance are too high. Using it now turns a courtroom dispute over permits and mitigation into a cabinet-level decision that treats environmental safeguards as optional in a crisis.

The wildlife stakes are unusually concrete. The Guardian notes that only about 51 Rice’s whales remain, and that the Gulf ecosystem is still marked by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, when roughly 210 million gallons of oil spilled into the sea. Environmental groups warn that more drilling increases the probability of another catastrophic blowout while also raising chronic risks for sea turtles, whooping cranes and other species.

The political logic runs in the opposite direction. The Gulf supplies more than a tenth of US crude output, and the administration is presenting domestic production as an answer to external vulnerability. That argument becomes easier to make when energy prices rise: the same barrels that once looked like marginal profit now look like strategic inventory.

But the exemption also changes the incentives inside government. If a “national security” label can be attached to contested permitting whenever global prices jump, the exception becomes a standing tool rather than a last resort. Lawsuits and safeguards do not disappear; they are simply moved from environmental agencies to political committees where the decision-makers are the same officials promoting more drilling.

The committee’s vote was unanimous. The Rice’s whale population is still counted in dozens.