Activists urged Biden to add climate change considerations to Endangered Species Act, emails show
- April 11, 2026
Kevin Killough, Just the News
When the Endangered Species Committee voted last week to make oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of America exempt from the Endangered Species Act, a swift filing from environmental groups was expected.
The U.S. Department of Interior describes the committee as “a high-level federal committee established in 1978 under the Endangered Species Act. It was created to address extremely rare situations in which proposed federal action conflicts with the protection of an endangered or threatened species and no workable alternatives appear to exist.”
The Endangered Species Act has long provided a legal basis for anti-fossil fuel groups to litigate against drilling projects — what is often referred to as “lawfare” — but as the need for a secure supply of energy grows, this lawfare, according to the committee, is becoming a threat to national security.
A couple days after the vote, several anti-fossil fuel groups represented by Earthjustice, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Unlike the Trump administration, which makes unleashing American energy a policy priority, the Biden administration, which prioritized a climate agenda, had a cozier relationship with anti-fossil fuel activists.
Government watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust recently obtained emails through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that show two special interest groups pushed the Biden administration’s Department of Interior to make progressive climate change a key factor in the implementation of the Endangered Species Act.