Defenders of Wildlife sued the Trump administration Tuesday about its use of a seldom-used committee of federal officials to exempt oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from endangered species concerns.
The legal action in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is the fifth in a march of lawsuits from environmental advocates trying to counter the move by Trump officials to issue a sweeping exemption that could jeopardize the survival of endangered whales, sea turtles and other animals.
Late last month, the Endangered Species Committee met for the first time in more than three decades to issue an exemption for oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico, which President Donald Trump refers to as the Gulf of America.
Nicknamed the “God Squad” for its potential powers to extinguish endangered species, the group of six Cabinet-level officials chaired by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum acted on a never-before-invoked national security provision in the Endangered Species Act.
