INVESTIGATINGEnvironmentalThe Trump admin revived the Endangered Species Committee — dormant for 34 years — for the first time since the spotted owl controversy to unanimously strip endangered species protections from the entire Gulf of Mexico.
“The Trump admin revived the Endangered Species Committee — dormant for 34 years — for the first time since the spotted owl controversy to unanimously strip endangered species protections from the entire Gulf of Mexico.”
The Endangered Species Act has a nuclear option: the "God Squad" — a committee with the power to override species protections when economic interests demand it. The committee hadn't been convened in 34 years. The Trump administration brought it back to strip protections from the entire Gulf of Mexico.
Officially called the Endangered Species Committee, the "God Squad" was created in 1978 with the power to grant exemptions to the Endangered Species Act. It earned its nickname because it has the power to decide which species live and which die. It was last used during the spotted owl controversy in the early 1990s.
For 34 years, no administration — Republican or Democrat — convened the God Squad. The committee existed as a theoretical power that nobody was willing to use. Until now.
The committee voted unanimously to strip endangered species protections from the entire Gulf of Mexico. Not a specific area. Not a limited exemption. The entire Gulf. Every endangered species in one of the most biodiverse marine ecosystems in the Western Hemisphere lost federal protection in a single vote.
Oil. Gas. Drilling. The Gulf of Mexico sits on massive energy reserves. Endangered species protections create legal obstacles to extraction. The God Squad removed those obstacles in one meeting. Dormant for 34 years, revived for oil.
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