The 'God Squad' Waives Environmental Rules for Offshore Drilling

[Zorro]

The panel voted to override Endangered Species Act restrictions on oil and gas activities in the Gulf of Mexico, home to critically endangered whales and other imperiled wildlife.

A powerful panel of Trump administration officials voted unanimously on Tuesday to exempt oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from measures to protect endangered whales and other imperiled species.

The panel, the Endangered Species Committee, a high-level group that is often called the God Squad because it essentially holds the power to decide whether a species lives or dies, adopted the move during a brief, closed-door meeting at the Interior Department.

Until Tuesday, the God Squad had convened only three times, and never in the past three decades.

It was the Trump administration’s latest move to weaken the Endangered Species Act, the bedrock environmental law intended to prevent plant and animal extinctions. In November, the administration proposed to relax restrictions on drilling, logging and mining in critical habitats for endangered species across the country.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/31/climate/god-squad-whales-gulf.html

[sinkingfeeling]

1. We have dual kings in America: TSF and Oil. P.S. But "wind turbines kill birds," says TSF.

[Initech]

3. Didn't George Carlin say that America is an oil company with an army?

[CurtEastPoint]

2. Don't they mean the Gulf of Amurka?

[Faux pas]

4. Where do those assholes

think they're going when the earth crashes and burns? There ain't no earth two.

[scipan]

5. I really hope some judge will find this unlawful.

I know it's in the law but it's obviously being misused, like everything else he does.