What is the God Squad?<\/p>\n
The Endangered Species Act requires that federal agencies avoid any action that is likely to jeopardize<\/a> the continued existence of any species listed under the act. That includes federal permits for development, mining, drilling or logging.<\/p>\n To comply with the law, companies can be required to take actions to avoid harming protected species. Those steps can be frustrating when they add delays and costs to already costly development projects.<\/p>\n Early in the law\u2019s history, Congress amended it to include an exemption<\/a>. It authorized the creation of the Endangered Species Act Committee, made up of federal agency leaders, which could grant exemptions to this prohibition on federal actions considered likely to risk extinction of a listed species.<\/p>\n In one of only three meetings over 50 years, the God Squad in the 1990s considered a request to exempt the northern spotted owl in parts of Oregon targeted for logging. The request was eventually withdrawn. That committee \u2013 the God Squad \u2013 includes seven members, and a vote may succeed only if five or more committee members agree. The six permanent members are the secretaries of the interior, agriculture and Army; the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, and the administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The seventh member of the committee is a designated individual from the affected state or states.<\/p>\n The committee\u2019s rare actions in the past<\/p>\n Meetings of the God Squad are so rare that the committee has gathered only three times in its existence.<\/p>\n The committee\u2019s authority is limited to very uncommon circumstances in which there are no \u201creasonable and prudent alternatives<\/a>\u201d that would avoid jeopardizing a listed species or impair a species\u2019 critical habitat.<\/p>\n The committee\u2019s first and most notable case was in 1979. It involved the snail darter<\/a>, a tiny, then-endangered fish whose habitat would have been harmed by the proposed Tellico Dam in Tennessee. Around the same time, the committee also met to review an exemption application related to water management at the Grayrocks Dam in Wyoming and its effects on endangered whooping cranes<\/a> downstream in Nebraska.<\/p>\n The Tennessee Valley Authority\u2019s Tellico Dam, where the God Squad rejected a request for an exemption to the Endangered Species Act in 1979, was eventually completed after authorization from Congress. The third meeting of the committee was in the 1990s, when it considered exempting from the Endangered Species Act multiple timber sales in Oregon and Washington that would likely jeopardize the northern spotted owl<\/a>.<\/p>\n For Tellico Dam, the committee denied the exception<\/a>, but Congress later cleared the way for the dam to be completed. For Grayrocks Dam, the committee granted an exemption but required the Missouri Basin Power Project<\/a> to preserve habitat and manage water to reduce harm to the cranes.<\/p>\n In the case of the northern spotted owl, exemptions were initially granted for timber sales in Oregon but later withdrawn<\/a> due to legal challenges and procedural violations. No such exemptions were authorized in Washington state.<\/p>\n Why is it convening now?<\/p>\n The official notice<\/a> says the meeting is \u201cregarding an exemption under the Endangered Species Act\u201d with respect to oil and gas activities. <\/p>\n In a court document responding to a lawsuit filed over the meeting by the environmental group Center for Biological Diversity<\/a>, the government wrote that the March 31 meeting was called because the \u201cSecretary of War found it necessary for reasons of national security<\/a> to exempt from the ESA\u2019s requirements all Gulf of America<\/a> oil and gas exploration and development activities\u201d associated with the Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Program.<\/p>\n That likely refers to a May 2025 biological opinion by NOAA Fisheries<\/a>. That opinion found that oil industry operations, particularly vessels striking wildlife, could jeopardize the Rice\u2019s whale<\/a> and other rare species. <\/p>\n The committee could be considering exemptions to the requirements of that biological opinion, which is being challenged<\/a> by both conservation groups that want more protections and by industries that consider it too restrictive. <\/p>\n Convening the committee also follows the mandate of President Donald Trump\u2019s January 2025 executive order declaring a \u201cnational energy emergency<\/a>.\u201d That executive order directs the Endangered Species Act Committee to \u201cidentify obstacles to domestic energy infrastructure specifically deriving from implementation of the ESA.\u201d<\/p>\n Changing the paradigm<\/p>\n While the common rhetoric often makes it seem like energy and environmental goals are at odds, examples among leading energy and transportation companies have shown otherwise.<\/p>\n At the University of Illinois Chicago\u2019s Energy Resources Center<\/a>, my colleagues and I find ways conservationists and energy companies can work together, such as through networks like the Rights-of-Way as Habitat Working Group<\/a>, which focuses on habitat conservation in working landscapes.<\/p>\n Balancing ecological and economic interests is not just a \u201cnice idea\u201d \u2013 it\u2019s shown to be good business<\/a>. <\/p>\n Planning new projects in ways that avoid harm to wildlife and include proactive conservation plans can avoid lawsuits, permit delays, reputational risks and increased costs. <\/p>\n Companies we work with in the energy and infrastructure sectors are finding that integrating ecological principles into projects and conservation practices into operations avoids other business interruptions as well.<\/p>\n For example, maintaining green spaces as wildlife habitat can buffer infrastructure from severe weather<\/a>, erosion or flooding. Restoring or improving habitats can also reduce legal risks from environmental damage.<\/p>\n Maintaining natural areas on corporate lands can boost species considered at risk, like the monarch butterfly. This is land maintained near a military base. Programs like the University of Illinois Chicago\u2019s nationwide agreements for monarch butterflies<\/a> and bumblebees<\/a> help companies reduce regulatory delays and help conserve endangered and declining species at the same time. <\/p>\n For businesses, this can create positive connections with their employees and the communities where they operate. This, in turn, improves their reputations, which can help reduce project delays and encourage investment.<\/p>\n What happens when the Endangered Species Act Committee convenes may influence more than the future of a few species. It could affect broader actions concerning environmental stewardship, corporate responsibility and federal oversight.<\/p>\n If the committee focuses solely on removing protections for wildlife, it risks eroding public trust and could hinder efforts to foster conservation in the energy industry. If instead the committee considers how to increase cooperation among industry, conservation groups and federal agencies, it could have a lasting positive outcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a well-worn debate in U.S. politics that goes something like this: Would you rather have abundant and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-567132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/file-20260327-57-mr7g3a.jpg\")
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\n Polinova via Wikimedia Commons<\/a>, CC BY<\/a><\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/file-20260327-57-a2y042.png\")
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\n U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service\/Flickr<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/file-20260326-57-cffcx4.jpg\")
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\n U.S. Space Force photo by Master Sgt. Carlin Leslie<\/a><\/p>\n