‘Extinction Committee’ Allows Oil Drillers to Ignore Species Protections in Gulf of Mexico

This morning, for the first time in 34 years, a committee of political appointees with the power to condemn imperiled species to extinction met to review a request for an exemption to the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The panel — formally known as the Endangered Species Committee but sometimes referred to as the “Extinction Committee” or the “God Squad” — voted to grant the exemption. The committee has only convened three times since Congress amended the Act in 1978 to consider exemptions in extreme circumstances where there was an irreconcilable conflict between a project and the survival of a species.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asked for the meeting to be held to exempt all offshore oil-and-gas drilling activities across the Gulf of Mexico from the ESA, citing reasons of “national security.” Oil production in the Gulf is not currently constrained by the ESA. No permits have been denied, nor have any development plans been rejected, due to the law. Even oil drillers recently told a federal court that current protocols — which already lead to widespread injury, harassment, and loss of endangered marine life — are not causing disruption to their operations. The unprecedented blanket exemption could serve as a death sentence for already imperiled marine life including whales, sea turtles, manatees, fish, rays, corals and birds.

Steve Mashuda, Managing Attorney for Earthjustice’s Oceans Program, issued the following response:

“The Trump administration is exploiting its self-made gas crisis to get rid of protections for endangered whales and other imperiled species in the Gulf of Mexico. Secretary Hegseth and his Extinction Committee claim this will eventually cut costs for cash-strapped Americans, but Gulf communities know what unrestrained drilling will really bring: devastating oil spills and the destruction of ecosystems and coastal economies. Earthjustice and our partners will go to court to stop this illegal order.”

Exempting the oil industry’s Gulf of Mexico operations from the Endangered Species Act will not reduce prices at the pump. The U.S. is producing more oil than any nation in history and is the world’s top producer of gas (and is a net exporter of both). The Gulf specifically has seen steady oil-and-gas production and is poised to see an increase given the industry’s push into deeper Gulf waters, where there are more oil deposits, but where extraction becomes exponentially more dangerous.