Trump officials block drilling in Gulf of Mexico under endangered species act, putting rare whale at risk
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The Trump administration exempted oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from the Endangered Species Act after US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the environmental charges threatened to derail domestic power as the US wrestles with Iran.
Critics say Tuesday’s move by the government’s Endangered Species Committee could kill the rare whale and harm other marine life.
Dubbed “God’s Team” by groups that say it can decide the fate of the species, the committee includes several Trump administration officials and is chaired by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
The committee met Tuesday for the first time in more than three decades amid a global oil shock and soaring oil prices brought on by the Iran war. The US pumps more oil than any other nation, but that hasn’t stopped prices from rising: The national average for a gallon of gasoline rose by $4 US on Tuesday for the first time since 2022.
“Disruption of oil production in the Gulf does not only harm us, it benefits our enemies,” Hegseth told the committee. “We will not allow our laws to make us weak and strengthen those who wish to harm us. If the development of the Gulf is frozen, we are prevented from producing the energy we need as a country and as a department.”
The endangered Rare Rice whale
Environmental groups tried to block Tuesday’s meeting but vowed to oppose the exemption. They say this release will accelerate the extinction of the rare Rice’s whale, which is only found in the Gulf of Mexico. Government biologists say there are only about 50 animals left.
“If Trump succeeds here, he could be the first person in history to deliberately exterminate a species from the face of the earth. That’s how critical the Rice whale situation is,” said Patrick Parenteau, a young law professor at Vermont Law School.
Parenteau dismissed Hegseth’s claims of a safety threat, as companies continued to seek and extract oil from the harbor despite legal challenges over the critically endangered whale.
In his last days in office, former Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden sought to block new offshore oil and gas drilling in much of America’s coastal waters, citing the climate crisis.
US President Donald Trump scrapped that policy and made increasing oil production a priority in his second term. Trump wants to open up new areas off the coast of Florida to drilling and has proposed rolling back environmental regulations that the industry doesn’t like.
Hegseth informed Burgum on March 13 that an exemption from the Endangered Species Act for oil and gas drilling in the area “is necessary for reasons of national security.”
Hegseth told committee members Tuesday that Iran’s efforts to block shipping through the world’s busiest oil route, the Strait of Hormuz, underscores the national security importance of strong domestic oil production. He said pending lawsuits from environmental organizations are “at risk of stopping” oil production in the port.
US President Donald Trump has overturned an Obama-era executive order that has guided US climate action since 2009 in a way that climate scientists say will give polluters less confidence – including the US coal industry that Trump is determined to revive.
Whales, turtles and sturgeons can suffer
The gulf release is the first time that national security has been cited to justify action by the Endangered Species Committee. Conservation organizations immediately criticized this act and said it was done illegally.
“The Endangered Species Act has not slowed a single amount of oil from being released from the Gulf,” said Defenders of Wildlife president Andrew Bowman.
“I cannot stress enough that this action is unprecedented and illegal.”
A 2025 National Marine Fisheries Service analysis determined that the oil and gas project could harm several species of whales, sea turtles and gulf sturgeon. They face potential damage from ship strikes, oil spills and other impacts.
Since 1973, the Endangered Species Act has made it illegal to harm or kill species on the protected list. This committee was established in 1978 as a way to release projects if nothing else can provide similar economic benefits to the region or if it is of national interest.
Before this week, the panel had met only three times and issued only two exemptions. The first was in 1979 to allow the construction of a dam on the Platte River in Wyoming, home of the whooping crane. It last met in 1992, allowing logging in northern owl habitats in Oregon. That exemption request was later withdrawn.
Its latest meeting follows a judge’s decision Monday that halted efforts during Trump’s first term to weaken endangered species laws.
Simple project permissions
Industry observers said the exemption could have a major impact on energy companies by improving approvals for new projects and curbing the ability of opponents to disrupt drilling plans.
“Multiple lawsuits from activist groups targeting a legal, well-regulated industry should not be allowed to permanently block projects of national importance,” said Erik Milito with the National Ocean Industries Association, which represents ocean developers.
The Gulf of Mexico is one of the country’s leading oil regions, producing two million barrels per day. It accounts for about 15 percent of the waste pumped annually in the US, and a small portion of domestic natural gas production.
This port has also been the site of natural disasters such as the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion in 2010 which killed 11 workers and spilled 500 million liters of oil. Rice’s whale numbers dropped by 22 percent following the accident and may take decades to recover, scientists say.
A spill from a port earlier this month off the coast of Mexico spread 600 kilometers, contaminating at least six species and contaminating seven nature reserves.
The Trump administration in mid-March approved BP’s new $5 billion US deepwater gulf drilling project.
