President Donald Trump wants to increase logging in national forests and on public lands, including by bypassing endangered species protections.
To do that, the federal government would have to activate a seldom-used committee nicknamed the “God Squad” because it can approve federal projects even if it leads to extinction of a species otherwise protected by the Endangered Species Act.
But experts say there are strict procedural requirements — and no provision under law to proactively use the committee to bypass protections.
Here’s what to know:
What does Trump want?
The president on Saturday signed actions to increase domestic lumber production in national forests and other public lands, directing federal agencies to look for ways to bypass protections for endangered species.
Upon taking office in January, Trump declared a national energy emergency and directed the committee to convene at least quarterly to either consider exemptions or, if there are none, “to identify obstacles to domestic energy infrastructure” related to the Endangered Species Act or the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The Endangered Species Act makes it illegal to harm or kill protected species and has led to restrictions on logging, mining and oil and gas development. The Marine Mammal Protection Act bans killing and harassment of marine mammals with some limited exceptions.
What is the God Squad?
Officially called the Endangered Species Committee, it was established in 1978 as a way to exempt projects from Endangered Species Act protections if a cost-benefit analysis concluded it was the only way to achieve net economic benefits in the national or regional interest.
In the case of logging, the analysis also should determine if the benefits of cutting trees outweigh the economic value of watershed and other protections provided by standing timber, said Patrick Parenteau, an emeritus professor at the Vermont Law and Graduate School who helped write criteria for the God Squad.
The seven-member committee is led by the secretary of the Interior and includes the secretaries of Agriculture and the Army, administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. Affected states also would be represented with one vote total, meaning multiple states would each get a fraction of a vote.
Five votes are required for an exemption.
When can the God Squad be convened?
The secretary of the Interior can convene the committee only for a specific project and only if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service — after a required environmental review — concludes the project would jeopardize survival of a protected species, Parenteau said.
Otherwise, “there is no basis to convene the God Squad,” he said. “Contrary to what Trump has been talking about, you don’t convene this committee to grant exemptions prospectively. That is not legal. There’s no jurisdiction for the committee to even be convened to do that.”
What has the committee done in the past?
Only twice in its 47 years has the committee issued exemptions. The first allowed construction of a dam on a section of the Platte River considered critical habitat for whooping cranes. But a negotiated settlement won significant protections that led to overall ecosystem improvement and a rebounded crane population.
The second exemption, during the George H.W. Bush administration, was for logging in northern spotted owl habitat. But the Bureau of Land Management under President Bill Clinton withdrew the request after environmental groups sued, arguing that the committee’s decision was political and violated legal procedures.
