Source: International Business Times
On Tuesday, the Trump administration handed the oil and gas industry a sweeping victory in the Gulf of Mexico, after the federal Endangered Species Committee, better known as the "God Squad," voted to exempt offshore drilling from parts of the Endangered Species Act. In an official statement, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, chair of the "God Squad," said the move was justified as "energy streams in the Gulf of America must not be disrupted or held hostage by ongoing litigation," and "Energy production in the Gulf of America is indispensable to our nation's strength, safeguarding our energy independence and preventing reliance on foreign adversaries. "The "God Squad" is the nickname for the federal Endangered Species Committee, a rarely used panel created by Congress in the 1978 amendments to the Endangered Species Act.
