Could Trump Use the ‘God Squad’ to Override Environmental Law?

In at least two executive orders since he took office last week, President Trump has invoked a panel with a telling nickname: the God Squad.

The committee is made up of high-level officials who can override the landmark Endangered Species Act so that development or other projects can proceed even if they might result in an extinction. It’s called the God Squad because its members “literally have the authority over the life and death of the species,” said Patrick Parenteau, an emeritus professor at the Vermont Law and Graduate School who, in the late 1970s, had a hand in writing the legislative language that created the God Squad provision.

“They can cause the species to go extinct from the face of the earth,” he said.

The power to convene the committee comes from an amendment to the act itself, but it has rarely been used. And just because Mr. Trump says he plans to use it now, legal experts emphasize, it doesn’t mean he will be successful. There are stringent procedural requirements that have to come first.

How does the ‘God Squad’ work?

Officially named the Endangered Species Committee, the group is led by the interior secretary and composed of five other senior officials: the secretaries of agriculture and the Army, the head of the Council of Economic Advisers and the administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Each has a vote.

It also includes one person each from any affected states, whose votes collectively add up to one.

When a federal action in question is deemed to be in the public interest and is nationally or regionally significant, the members of the committee can decide that major economic factors outweigh the Endangered Species Act’s requirements.

If five of the seven votes are in favor of a project proceeding, it can do so.

The God Squad has ruled three times since it was created in 1978. One exemption was denied, and two were permitted.

A dam was allowed to proceed in 1979 despite concerns about whooping cranes, but the project included significant measures to help the birds, whose numbers have grown over time. In the other, related to the northern spotted owl, environmental groups sued in 1992 after an exemption was given for logging, arguing that the committee’s decision had violated legal procedures and was based in politics rather than science. The Bureau of Land Management withdrew its request for the exemption.

How is Trump trying to use it now?

He has referred to the committee in at least two executive orders since taking office.

In an order that declares a national energy emergency, Mr. Trump directs the interior secretary to “convene the Endangered Species Act Committee not less than quarterly, unless otherwise required by law.” If there are no applications for the committee to review, then it should still meet to “to identify obstacles to domestic energy infrastructure” related to the Endangered Species Act or the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the order says.

In another executive order, made public on Sunday and related to the management of California’s water, the president orders the interior secretary to expedite any actions related to an exemption.

But unless the group is reviewing a request for a specific exemption for a specific action, environmental lawyers say, it’s not acting as the God Squad. And to convene the God Squad, the law requires that certain procedures be met. These can take a long time.

“It seems like they believe that the God Squad can wave its hand and declare a particular species no longer within the protection of the Endangered Species Act,” said Drew Caputo, vice president of litigation for lands, wildlife and oceans at Earthjustice, an environmental law organization that sued the federal government in the spotted owl case. “That’s not how the process works at all.”

Consultation in good faith has to have occurred. Alternatives have to have been considered. Biological opinions have to be issued.

If any of these criteria are not met? “Then you go to court,” Mr. Parenteau said.

On top of all that, the group applying for the exemption from the committee must pay for any required actions to try to preserve the species, possibly forever. Congress made the entire process somewhat onerous by design, lawyers say, because the stakes of extinction are so high.

The executive order related to California water involves several threatened or endangered fish, including the delta smelt, a fish that Mr. Trump targeted in his first administration and which he has inaccurately linked to the devastating fires in the Los Angeles region.

“If a case actually gets to the Trump administration God Squad, I would absolutely expect an exemption,” Mr. Parenteau said. “But I don’t see a case getting there, and certainly not the delta smelt.”

The White House did not respond to requests for comment.