The Trump administration on Tuesday exempted oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from the Endangered Species Act after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said environmentalists' lawsuits threatened to hobble domestic energy supplies as the U.S. wages war against Iran.
Critics said the move by the government's Endangered Species Committee could doom a rare whale species and harm other marine life. Nicknamed the "God Squad" by groups who say it can decide a species' fate, the committee comprises several Trump administration officials and is chaired by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
It met Tuesday for the first time in more than three decades amid global oil shocks and soaring energy prices brought on by the Iran war. The U.S. pumps more oil than any other nation, but that hasn't insulated it from spiking prices: The national average for a gallon of gasoline topped $4 Tuesday.
“Disruptions to Gulf oil production doesn’t hurt just us, it benefits our adversaries,” Hegseth told the committee. “We cannot allow our own rules to weaken our standing and strengthen those who wish to harm us. When development in the Gulf is chilled, we are prevented from producing the energy we need as a country and as a department.”
The exemptions were not expected to immediately impact prices for crude or at the pump. Putting new oil wells into production takes years of planning and development.
They say it would speed the extinction of the rare Rice's whale, which is found exclusively in the Gulf of Mexico. Government biologists say only about 50 of the animals remain.
“If Trump is successful here, he could be the first person in history to knowingly extirpate a species from the face of the earth. That’s how precarious the condition of the Rice’s whale is,” said Patrick Parenteau, emeritus professor of law at Vermont Law School. Parenteau dismissed Hegseth’s claims of a security threat, since companies have continued to look for and extract oil in the Gulf despite legal challenges over the critically endangered whale.
The Center for Biological Diversity asked U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras in Washington on Tuesday to cancel the exemption. Last week Contreras declined the environmental group's request to stop the committee from convening.
Streamlined approvals for drilling
During his last days in office, former Democratic President Joe Biden sought to ban new offshore oil and gas drilling in most U.S. coastal waters, citing the climate crisis.
President Donald Trump reversed that policy and made increased fossil fuel production a central focus of his second term. The Republican wants to open new areas of the Gulf off the Florida coast to drilling, and has proposed sweeping rollbacks of environmental regulations disliked by industry.
Hegseth told committee members Tuesday that Iran's chokehold on traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, underscored the national security imperative of robust domestic oil production. He said litigation from environmental groups "threatened to halt" Gulf oil production.
Industry observers said the exemption could have significant implications for energy companies by streamlining approvals of new projects and impeding opponents’ ability to derail drilling plans.
“Serial litigation from activist groups targeting a lawful, well-regulated industry should not be allowed to indefinitely obstruct projects of clear national importance,” said Erik Milito with the National Ocean Industries Association, which represents offshore developers.
The Gulf of Mexico produces about 2 million barrels of oil a day. It accounts for almost 15% of crude pumped annually in the U.S.
The Gulf also has been the scene of environmental disasters such as BP's Deepwater Horizon blowout in 2010 that killed 11 workers and spilled 134 million gallons (500 million liters) of oil. Rice's whale numbers dropped 22% following the accident and could take decades to recover, scientists said.
A spill in the Gulf off the Mexican coast this month spread 373 miles (600 kilometers), contaminating at least six species and polluting seven protected natural reserves.
The Trump administration in mid-March approved BP’s new $5 billion ultra-deepwater drilling project in the Gulf.
Whales, turtles and sturgeon at risk
A 2025 National Marine Fisheries Service analysis determined the Gulf oil and gas program was likely to harm several species of whales, sea turtles and Gulf sturgeon. They face potential harm from ship strikes, oil spills and other impacts.
The Gulf exemption is the first time national security has been cited to justify action by the Endangered Species Committee. Conservation groups asserted it was done illegally.
“The Endangered Species Act has not slowed an iota of oil from being extracted from the Gulf,” said Defenders of Wildlife President Andrew Bowman. “I cannot stress enough how unprecedented and unlawful this action is.”
Hegseth’s request for an exemption was unanimously supported by the committee, which included Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, White House Council of Economic Advisers Acting Chair Pierre Yared, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Administrator Neil Jacobs and Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll.
Driscoll said he could “personally attest that disruptions to oil and gas production in the Gulf would significantly impact the Army’s ability to man, train and equip combat-ready formations.”
Since 1973, the Endangered Species Act has made it illegal to harm or kill species on a protected list. The committee was formed in 1978 as a way to exempt projects if no alternative would provide comparable economic benefits or if it was in the nation's best interest.
Before this week, the panel convened just three times and issued only two exemptions. The first was in 1979 to allow construction on a dam on the Platte River in Wyoming, home to the whooping crane. It last met in 1992, allowing logging in northern spotted owl habitats in Oregon. That exemption request was later withdrawn.