PORTLAND, Ore.— President Trump’s executive order declaring a national energy emergency substantially undercuts protections for endangered species in the United States. The order weakens the Endangered Species Act’s prohibition on federal agencies jeopardizing the survival of endangered and threatened species or harming their critical habitat.

“With U.S. oil production at an all-time high, the real national emergencies are the extinction crisis and climate change,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “We’re losing plant and animal species at an unprecedented rate and our planet is heating up with dangerous speed. Extinction and climate change are chewing up the web of life that ultimately supports virtually everything we know and love, and Trump’s order will only accelerate the destruction.”

Under the Endangered Species Act, federal agencies must ensure their actions won’t drive species to extinction by consulting with either the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or NOAA Fisheries. Under Trump’s executive order, agencies would identify a list of energy projects that would largely bypass this process by means normally reserved for natural disasters or national security emergencies.

The order would also require a body known as the “God Squad” to convene on a quarterly basis to determine if energy projects should move forward even if they will drive species to extinction. This committee has only met a handful of times in the last 50 years. It consists of the secretaries of Agriculture, Interior and Army, administrators of the EPA and NOAA Fisheries, chairperson of the Council of Economic Advisors and a state representative.

“This executive order is a death warrant for polar bears, lesser prairie chickens, whooping cranes and so many more species on the brink of extinction,” said Greenwald. “This unconscionable measure is completely out of step with most Americans, an overwhelming majority of whom support protecting species from extinction and preserving our natural heritage. We’ll use every legal tool we can to ensure dangerous fossil fuel projects don’t drive species to extinction.”