"The Interior Department was hit with a lawsuit Wednesday accusing the agency of illegally convening the Endangered Species Committee to waive protections for animals in the Gulf of Mexico in order to allow for more offshore drilling there.
The committee, known as the “God Squad” because of its power to impact the natural world, was called without the public notices or consultation with wildlife agencies that govern offshore drilling’s impacts on endangered species in the region as the Endangered Species Act requires, the Center for Biological Diversity said in a complaint filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced the meeting—the first since 1992—on March 16, the same day the DOI’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved BP PLC‘s $5 billion Kaskida oil project in the Gulf.
The project involves “similar risky drilling” that led to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, the worst oil spill in US history, the complaint said."
Taylor Mills reports for Bloomberg Environment March 18, 2026.
