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Environmental Law

The meeting, planned for this month, will focus on oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

March 16, 2026, 4:04 p.m. ET

Full article

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/16/climate/god-squad-whales-gulf-oil.html?unlocked_article_code=1.T1A.9y9R.qpxnQw3kabJT&smid=url-share

"The Trump administration plans to convene the so-called God Squad, a high-level federal panel that has the power to override protections under the Endangered Species Act, for a meeting related to oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico.

The meeting, scheduled for March 31, will be the first time in three decades that the group, officially called the Endangered Species Committee, will gather.

Notice of the meeting was released on Friday and officially published in the Federal Register on Monday. The Gulf, which the administration calls the Gulf of America, is home to the critically endangered Rice’s whale, a species that exists nowhere else. According to the latest available federal estimates, around 50 of the animals remain on Earth.

Information in the notice announcing the meeting, called by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, is sparse..."