An environmental group sued the Interior Department on Wednesday, seeking to halt the department’s plans to convene a committee that has powers to exempt industrial activity from endangered species protections.
The Center for Biological Diversity’s lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, asks a judge to call off a meeting of the Endangered Species Committee scheduled for March 31. Environmentalists fear Interior, through the committee, could move to weaken protections for imperiled species in the Gulf of Mexico, such as the Rice’s whale.
The committee, created by Congress in the late 1970s, has the power to brush aside standard procedures under the Endangered Species Act in cases where a critical infrastructure project that officials wish to see approved could jeopardize the continued survival of an endangered species.
Known informally as the “God Squad” because of its powers to potentially condemn a species to extinction, the committee has not met in more than 30 years.
