WASHINGTON— The Endangered Species Committee granted an unprecedented exemption today to all oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico from the requirements of the Endangered Species Act, the first such exemption in the law’s 53-year history.

“This amoral action by Pete Hegseth and Trump’s cronies is as horrific as it is illegal, and we’ll overturn it in court,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Americans overwhelmingly oppose sacrificing endangered whales and other marine life so the fossil fuel industry can get richer. This has nothing to do with national security and everything to do with Trump and his lackeys kowtowing to Big Oil.”

The committee, also known as the God Squad or Extinction Committee, used the pretext of “national security” to justify this exemption, which will likely drive the extremely endangered Rice’s whale to extinction. It will also deliver a crushing blow to the conservation of dozens of other threatened and endangered species in the Gulf of Mexico, including sea turtles, whooping cranes and manatees.

The committee granted the exemption despite the fact that no company from the oil and gas industry or any federal agency has requested it.

The Center for Biological Diversity will be amending its existing lawsuit today to challenge Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s unfounded national security determination and the unlawful exemption granted by the committee.

The Rice’s whale is the only endemic whale species found within the United States, and lives only in the Gulf of Mexico. Its population collapsed after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill and is today only at about 51 animals.

The Endangered Species Act sets forth a complex, multistep public process for the consideration of any exemptions to the law and requires the committee records to be available to the public. But the Trump committee bypassed all of these requirements and voted after just 32 minutes of discussion.

With today’s vote, the Trump extinction committee has overruled a National Marine Fisheries Service requirement for oil and gas industry ships to operate at safe speeds in the eastern Gulf and monitor the location of whales to avoid strikes and deaths. The committee also has effectively eliminated all other conservation and safety measures designed to protect marine wildlife and species along the Gulf Coast from catastrophic oil spills.

“The fossil fuel industry has certainly gotten its money’s worth from supporting Trump’s reelection. I’m sure CEOs are gleeful about this vote, hoping to make even more money by sacrificing our country’s wildlife and gutting environmental protections,” Hartl said. “When we overturn this heartless, cowardly act by Hegseth and the goons on the extinction committee, it’s important for people to remember who failed to speak out against their actions.”