![\"FILE](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AP23093652664070-1000x713.jpg\")
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AP Photo\/Eric Gay, File<\/p>\n
A man fishes near an oil drilling platform on May 8, 2020, in Port Aransas, Texas.<\/p>\n
Environmental activists in Galveston have joined a lawsuit<\/a> against the Trump administration after its decision to exempt oil and gas companies from adhering to protections under the long-standing Endangered Species Act.<\/p>\n Trump administration officials within the Endangered Species Committee voted unanimously on the exemption last week after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth triggered the vote, citing “national security” reasons.<\/p>\n Joanie Steinhaus, ocean program director for Turtle Island Restoration Network<\/a>, an ocean conservation nonprofit that has a main office in Galveston, said the exemption would leave a number of Gulf species and ecosystems unprotected and vulnerable to extinction, including the critically endangered Rice’s whale and the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sign up for the Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n “To think that \u2026 because of actions of this committee that we can see species go extinct in our lifetime, it\u2019s truly unbelievable and devastating to me,” Steinhaus said.<\/p>\n Previously, under Endangered Species Act protections, oil and gas companies were asked to protect Gulf species by refraining from putting trash into the Gulf and suspending their use of loud technology around whales, according to NPR.<\/a><\/p>\n In response to a request for comment on the lawsuit, White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers reiterated the administration’s assertions that the exemption was needed to protect national security.<\/p>\n “The Endangered Species Committee, more popularly known as the \u2018God Squad,’ has full authority to grant exemptions to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) requirements,” Rogers said. “The Secretary of War determined that the oil and gas production in the Gulf of America required an exemption under the ESA as it is necessary and essential to the United States’ national security. As authorized under the ESA, the Committee unanimously voted to grant an exemption to Gulf of America oil and gas activities from the ESA so that America’s energy streams would not be disrupted or held hostage.” <\/p>\n RELATED: The U.S. and Iran agree to a 2-week ceasefire<\/a><\/p>\n The American Petroleum Institute, a national organization representing the oil and gas industry, said there’s a need to balance energy production and wildlife protection.<\/p>\n “Our industry has a long track record of protecting wildlife while developing offshore energy responsibly,” spokesperson Andrea Woods said in a statement. “Over the long term, American energy leadership depends on getting that balance right through reasonable, science-based protections while meeting growing energy demand.”<\/p>\n Skip York, a nonresident fellow in energy and global oil at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, said while the policy change has created a stir, it might not have much of an impact on drilling in the Gulf.<\/p>\n “If you look at the density or the intensity of where oil and gas production or reserves are located in the Gulf of America, and then you look at the endangered species \u2014 (if) you kind of did a map of the two, there isn’t really a whole lot of overlap,” he said.<\/p>\n In a news release<\/a> about the lawsuit, the environmental groups stated that no oil and gas industry proposals or permits have been denied due to the Endangered Species Act. Steinhaus also claimed there is no need for national security in the Gulf.<\/p>\n “Everything\u2019s been operating successfully,” Steinhaus said. “This was just another way to give them additional handouts to this industry.”<\/p>\n Steinhaus said the Endangered Species Committee,<\/a> known as the “God Squad” for its ability to make life-or-death decisions<\/a> about endangered animals, did not follow the proper procedures to convene when they made the vote. <\/p>\n “This meeting lasted approximately 17 minutes and they had absolutely no scientific testimony,\u201d she said. \u201cIn previous meetings they met and they met in arenas. It was very transparent. There were public present. They had committees. They had scientific presentations.”<\/p>\n Steinhaus said her group plans to continue to fight for legislative action to put the protections of the Endangered Species Act back into place for oil and gas companies that operate in the Gulf.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AP Photo\/Eric Gay, File A man fishes near an oil drilling platform on May 8, 2020, in Port…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[12928,328,1420,22601,22598,703,22599,22600,22602,359,10957,558,1284,42,2222,39,309,22603],"class_list":{"0":"post-58368","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-persian-gulf","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-court","11":"tag-endangered-species-act","12":"tag-energy-environment","13":"tag-environment","14":"tag-environmental-justice","15":"tag-galveston","16":"tag-god-squad","17":"tag-gulf","18":"tag-lawsuit","19":"tag-local","20":"tag-national","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-oil-and-gas-industry","23":"tag-persian-gulf","24":"tag-trump-administration","25":"tag-turtle-island-restoration-network"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116370871613219097","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}