What happens on Tuesday is a matter of life and death.

The Endangered Species Committee
—composed of the heads of the Interior, Agriculture, Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Army, and the Council of Economic Advisors
—can decide that the very presence of an endangered species is an unacceptable obstacle to the oil and gas industry’s balance sheet.

When the "God Squad" grants an exemption, the species in question is put at risk of extinction.

The principal species in question is the Rice’s whale,
a majestic creature that has navigated the Gulf since long before humans named it,
but was only identified as a distinct species in 2021.
As the only baleen whale to live exclusively in American waters, it has earned the nickname “America’s whale”
—and there are only around 50 of them left in our world.
There is a certain irony to the fact that a species so closely identified with America now faces existential risk from policies advanced in the name of putting America first.
https://newrepublic.com/article/208313/trump-god-squad-endangered-rices-whale-extinction-gulf-mexico