In Sweeping ESA Rollback, Doug Burgum and Pete Hegseth Play God

The so-called ‘God Squad’ obliterated Endangered Species Act restrictions on Gulf oil and gas developers at its first meeting in more than 30 years.

Save Our Parks protesters project Interior Department Secretary Doug Burgum's image onto the entrance of the DOI building in Washington. (Courtesy of Save Our Parks)

It took the Trump administration 15 minutes to wipe our crucial environmental safeguards in the Gulf of Mexico. It took them 15 minutes to condemn an endangered animal to possible extinction. It took them 15 minutes to play God.

This morning, sitting around a long table at Interior Department headquarters, Secretary Doug Burgum, with help from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, convened the so-called “God Squad,” a rarely-used committee empowered to waive Endangered Species Act protections under exceptional circumstances. In this case, Burgum gathered the committee to exempt federally-sanctioned oil and gas activities in the Gulf of Mexico from the ESA on national security grounds after receiving a request to do so earlier this year from Hegseth.

It was an unprecedented move of immense magnitude. The God Squad has not been convened in more than 30 years. And never before in the 50-year history of the ESA have national security justifications been used to waive endangered species protections and over such a huge area.

The committee members present at the meeting included Burgum, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, the EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, the Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll, and others, including Hegseth, who was there as a non-voting guest.

The six-member committee voted unanimously Tuesday to grant the exemption. Not a single member voiced serious concern or protest about what the move could mean for imperiled species, and particularly the Rice’s whale — a critically endangered animal in the Gulf threatened by oil and gas activities, including boat strikes. There are perhaps 50 Rice’s whales left in existence.

A Rice’s whale surfaces in the Gulf of Mexico. (Image by NOAA)

Last May, the federal government issued a finding under the ESA concluding that ongoing oil and gas activity in the Gulf threatens to jeopardize the continued existence of the Rice’s whale. Environmental groups subsequently sued in federal court to strengthen protections for the whale. Hegseth specifically cited such lawsuits as his rationale for calling on Burgum to use the God Squad to exempt Gulf of Mexico oil and gas drilling from the ESA.

“Considering this litigation, it is essential to our national security to exempt all Gulf oil and gas activities from the Endangered Species Act requirements,” he said, adding that such litigation risks halting or severely compromising oil and gas activities in the Gulf. He highlighted the threat that Iranian attacks in the Strait of Hormuz pose to global oil and gas supplies, and the need for robust domestic oil and gas production in the United States.

During the meeting, Burgum condemned “those that seek to slow or halt energy production in the United States with the weaponization of regulations.” It was a notable statement from an Interior Secretary who has spearheaded the Trump administration’s relentless attempt to block offshore wind development.

EPA administrator Lee Zeldin characterized ESA rules and litigation as a threat.

“Application of the ESA to oil and gas activities in this critically important location threatens energy independence and resilience,” he said. “In my judgement, it is critical to our national security to remove that threat without delay.”

The convening of the God Squad was announced earlier this month in a Federal Register notice signed by Christopher Danley, a top Interior Department political appointee who previously worked as a lawyer with many oil and gas clients. The announcement of the meeting sent shock waves through the conservation community, which feared a wholesale undoing of endangered species protections in the Gulf. Those fears seem to have borne out.

The use of the God Squad in such a sweeping and hasty manner could set the stage for a broader undoing of the ESA. If Secretary Hegseth and Secretary Burgum can waive away ESA protections in the Gulf, they could use similar methods to undo ESA protections on the huge swath of federal land across the country where oil and gas and other mineral development occur.

The ESA lays out a specific process that the God Squad (officially known as the Endangered Species Committee) must follow before exempting activities from the ESA’ strictures. Section 7(j) of the law does provide national security exemptions to the ESA, but whether the God Squad’s ruling is legitimate and followed the proper procedures, including a mandate to make all proceedings and documentation open to the public, is as yet unclear.

The activities of this MAGA God Squad will almost certainly face fierce legal challenges in the months to come.

​​“This amoral action by Pete Hegseth and Trump’s cronies is as horrific as it is illegal, and we’ll overturn it in court,” Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement following the meeting. “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.”

The Interior Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Corporate lobbyists, meanwhile, cheered the God Squad’s decision: