Meet the ‘God Squad,’ the Influential Endangered Species Panel That Just Curtailed Protections

(SeaPRwire) –   A panel of high-ranking officials, nicknamed the “God Squad” due to its authority to decide the survival of endangered species, has authorized an exemption to federal environmental protections for only the third time in its nearly 50-year history.

On Tuesday, the committee, comprised of Trump Administration officials, voted unanimously to waive environmental safeguards for oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, which were originally intended to protect endangered wildlife in the region.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who initiated the exemption request, argued before the Endangered Species Committee at the Interior Department that the move was a “matter of urgent national security” intended to counter “ongoing Endangered Species Act litigation that threatened to halt oil and gas production” in the gulf.

The decision drew immediate backlash from environmental activists and organizations. Demonstrators gathered outside the Interior Department to protest, chanting and displaying signs with messages such as “Don’t Play God.”

“The fact that the Secretary is requesting this exemption for national security reasons is shocking,” Beth Lowell, U.S. vice president of the international ocean conservation group Oceana, told TIME. “The intent from this exemption is really supposed to be an emergency, and we just don’t see that at this point … This exemption is just cutting out the safety net that the ocean wildlife need.”

This meeting was the first time the God Squad has convened in over three decades, with its last session occurring in 1992. Below is an overview of the committee and the potential consequences of Tuesday’s ruling.

What is the God Squad?

The Endangered Species Committee was established in 1978 as an amendment to the Endangered Species Act, which had been enacted five years prior.

The committee was formed to provide a mechanism for granting exemptions to the law. According to a Congressional Research Service primer on the Endangered Species Act, agencies may apply for an exemption “if the jeopardy that is expected to result from a proposed agency action cannot be avoided and the agency proposing the action nonetheless wishes to go ahead with the action.”

The primer notes that the committee has the authority to approve an exemption “despite future harm to a species,” provided at least five members vote in favor.

Over the past four decades, the God Squad has only reached final decisions on three exemption applications.

In 1979, the panel voted unanimously to allow the construction of the Grayrocks Dam and Reservoir on Wyoming’s Platte River, a critical stopover for the endangered whooping crane. That same year, it denied an exemption for the Tellico Dam on the Tennessee River, citing the potential threat to the endangered snail darter fish; however, Congress later intervened to permit the project’s completion.

The last time the committee met, in 1992, it approved a request from the Bureau of Land Management to conduct timber sales in an Oregon forest that served as habitat for the threatened northern spotted owl.

Three other cases were settled before the committee was required to issue a final ruling on an exemption request.

Who is on the committee?

The committee consists of six permanent members: the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of the Army, the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors (CEA), the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Current members include Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who chairs the panel; Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins; Secretary of the Army Daniel P. Driscoll; Acting CEA Chairman Pierre Yared; EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin; and NOAA Administrator Neil Jacobs.

What did the committee decide on Tuesday, and what’s at stake for wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico?

During Tuesday’s meeting, Burgum announced that the panel would “be issuing an exemption from the requirements of the [Endangered Species Act] for all oil and gas exploration, development and production activities associated with the … outercontinential shelf oil and gas program.”

This decision represents the latest effort by the Trump Administration to roll back environmental regulations, following a series of proposed rules in November aimed at weakening the Endangered Species Act.

Hegseth told the committee that “recent hostile action” by Iran near the Strait of Hormuz—a chokepoint for roughly 20% of global crude oil—underscores why “robust domestic oil production is a national security imperative.”

“To be secure as a nation, we need a steady, affordable supply of our own energy…This is not just about gas prices, it’s about our ability to power our military and protect our nation,” said Hegseth, who sat alongside Burgum. “That vital energy supply is under threat.”

Lowell noted to TIME that the Gulf of Mexico serves as a habitat for 20 threatened and endangered species, including sharks, manta rays, sea turtles, and the Rice’s whale.

Scientists from the National Marine Fisheries Service estimate that only about 50 of these baleen whales remain in the gulf, where they reside throughout the year.

“We really should not be putting profits over species protection, especially when we’re talking about extinction,” Lowell said.