The Trump administration is using a relatively obscure process to potentially exempt oil and gas drilling activities from the requirements of the Endangered Species Act.
The government is convening the Endangered Species Committee, often called the “God Squad,” to consider an exemption under the ESA “to oil and gas exploration, development, and production activities” in the Gulf of Mexico. A meeting is set for March 31.
The panel has six members: Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, Acting Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors Pierre Yared, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Administrator Neil Jacobs.
Environmental groups including Defenders of Wildlife and the Center for Biological Diversity criticized the move in separate statements. They said the government has failed to complete a number of procedural steps before meeting.
“Under the law, the committee is not authorized to meet unless it has received an application for an exemption from either a state, a federal agency, or a private entity that has a pending permit before the federal government,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the center. In addition, “an application to the committee is only valid when there is a ‘jeopardy’ opinion for a specific project and there is no available ‘reasonable and prudent alternative’ to avoid putting that species on a path to extinction.”
