Advocacy groups are suing the Trump administration over its blanket Endangered Species Act exemption for Gulf oil & gas drilling. (Clean Technica)
For context: Past exemptions decided by the “God Squad”—aka the Endangered Species Committee—have covered a single federal project and a single species.
This recent exemption is the first for an entire industry, potentially putting 20+ endangered and threatened species at risk—including the Rice’s whale, of which roughly 50 remain (exclusively in the Gulf of Mexico).
The lawsuit, filed by Earthjustice, argues that no oil & gas permits have actually been denied under the ESA. In fact, offshore drillers themselves recently told a federal court that their operations aren’t disrupted by existing protections.