Trump Revives Extinct "God Squad" to Exempt Big Oil From Endangered Species Protections

The Committee That Decides Which Species Live or Die

The Trump administration just pulled a legal maneuver so rare it's only happened twice before in American history: convening the Endangered Species Committee, better known as the "God Squad" for its power to decide whether a species goes extinct.

This seven-member panel of Cabinet appointees voted to exempt all oil and gas activities in the Gulf of Mexico from Endangered Species Act requirements. The decision could spell doom for the roughly 50 remaining Rice's whales on the planet, along with endangered sea turtles, whooping cranes, and countless other Gulf species.

The God Squad hadn't met in over 30 years. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called them back into session, claiming expanded Gulf drilling is "a critical matter of national security" necessary to produce "the energy we need as a country."

There's just one problem: U.S. oil production is already at historic highs.

Manufacturing a Crisis to Justify Killing Whales

Hegseth argued that "recent hostile action" by Iran makes expanded drilling a national security imperative, providing "a vital buffer, insulating our economy and military from foreign instability."

This is gaslighting on an industrial scale. The Trump administration started the war with Iran. Gas prices hit $4 in March because of Trump's war of choice, not because whales in the Gulf of Mexico have too many legal protections.

The Department of Interior's own data shows offshore oil production is currently at an all-time high. There is no energy emergency. The crisis is entirely self-inflicted through Trump's tariffs, illegal wars, and moves that have undercut NATO.

If the administration actually cared about insulating Americans from global oil price shocks, it would be expanding wind and solar -- energy sources that don't depend on Middle Eastern stability or global commodity markets. Instead, Trump is actively trying to shut down offshore wind projects while claiming he's protecting whales.

A Deadly Double Standard

Speaking of whales: the Trump administration has spent months fear-mongering about offshore wind supposedly harming marine mammals. Now they're condemning an entire whale species to extinction for oil company profits.

The seismic equipment used by oil and gas operations is far louder and travels much farther than anything used for offshore wind. Vessel strikes and oil spills from drilling pose a vastly greater threat to whales than renewable energy infrastructure.

The Rice's whale, found only in the Gulf of Mexico, lost 20 percent of its global population after the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Fifteen years later, researchers still see individual whales in poor condition, with only a handful of calves spotted. There are roughly 50 left on Earth.

The activists who claim offshore wind kills whales have been conspicuously silent about the God Squad's decision.

Gutting a Law That Works

The Endangered Species Act is one of America's most successful conservation laws. It brought back the green sea turtle, humpback whale, and bald eagle from the brink of extinction.

Exempting all Gulf oil and gas activities from these protections doesn't just risk one species. It undermines decades of conservation work and sets a precedent for future administrations to use the God Squad as a rubber stamp for industry whenever environmental laws become inconvenient.

The committee justified its decision with claims that litigation to protect the Rice's whale threatens national security. This is absurd on its face. What threatens national security is an administration so captured by fossil fuel interests that it will drive species to extinction while claiming to solve an energy crisis it created.

The United States doesn't need more Gulf drilling. It needs leadership that doesn't manufacture crises to justify handing favors to oil companies. The Rice's whale and every other endangered species in the Gulf are paying the price for this administration's corruption with their lives.