Trump’s ‘God Squad’ Exempts the Oil Industry From Protecting Endangered Rice’s Whales

The Trump administration is officially giving oil and gas developers a pass on protecting endangered whales off the southern coast of the United States, citing the Iran war as part of its justification.

On Tuesday, the “God Squad” — a group of seven government officials, including Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum — voted unanimously to grant a rare exemption from the Endangered Species Act for Rice’s whales.

The world’s roughly 50 remaining Rice’s whales are in the Gulf of Mexico, which the Trump administration has renamed the “Gulf of America.”

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, a guest at the meeting, asked for it to be called in the name of “national security,” pushing for an exemption for the oil and gas industry.

During the meeting, Hegseth claimed that pending lawsuits from environmental groups could halt planned oil and gas activities, and that lawsuits “waste critical government resources and make it impossible for energy companies to plan.”

Hegseth also cited the ongoing war in Iran as justification for the national security exemption, claiming that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz “highlights yet again why robust domestic oil production is a national security imperative.”

“We cannot allow our own rules to weaken our standing and strengthen those who wish to harm us,” he said.

This is the first time in history that the national security provision in the endangered species law has been used; before Tuesday, the group only met at the request of specific project developers.

Hegseth’s central role in calling for this exemption only became public information during litigation surrounding the meeting. The Center for Biological Diversity unsuccessfully sued to stop the meeting from occurring at all.

Last year, the Trump administration found that encounters with ships from oil activities in the region were “likely to jeopardize the continued existence” of the critically endangered whales.

BP, Chevron, Occidental Petroleum, and the American Petroleum Institute all lobbied the Trump administration over the course of the last year on the Rice’s whale, according to federal lobbying records.

Last month, the Trump administration approved BP’s plan for a new ultra-deepwater drilling operation in the Gulf of Mexico, making it the company’s first new build for that kind of project since the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Federal researchers estimate that the Deepwater Horizon spill affected a significant portion of Rice’s whale habitat and contributed to their population decline.

The Center for Biological Diversity is planning to sue to overturn Tuesday’s decision, the organization said in a statement after the meeting. The Center organized protestors outside the Department of the Interior offices in Washington during the meeting.

The last time the “God Squad” convened was in 1992. This is only the third time the federal government has approved an exemption under the Endangered Species Act.