Trump’s “God Squad” Might Vote for a Whale’s Extinction This Week

We have been trained to view these meetings as dry regulatory disputes over administrative law or the “rational” weighing of economic interests. But what happens on Tuesday is a matter of life and death. The committee—composed of the heads of the Interior, Agriculture, Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Army, and the Council of Economic Advisors—can decide that the very presence of an endangered species is an unacceptable obstacle to the oil and gas industry’s balance sheet. When the God Squad grants an exemption, the species in question is put at risk of extinction.

The principal species in question is the Rice’s whale, a majestic creature that has navigated the Gulf since long before humans named it—and renamed it—but was only identified as a distinct species in 2021. As the only baleen whale to live exclusively in American waters, it has earned the nickname “America’s whale”—and there are only around 50 of them left in our world. There is a certain irony to the fact that a species so closely identified with America now faces existential risk from policies advanced in the name of putting America first.

We are no longer debating policy, however. We are being asked to accept the potential extinction of a fellow creature so that an industry that is already extracting billions from the Gulf can extract a little more. Not to heat homes. Not to keep the lights on. But because the Rice’s whale is getting in the way of fossil fuel companies’ sole, unrelenting commitment to “maximizing shareholder value.” So, too, are sperm whales, Gulf sturgeon, and several species of sea turtles—all threatened or endangered species that also navigate those waters.