The Trump administration is removing all protections for endangered species in the Gulf.
The Endangered Species Committee met for the first time in 34 years to make the decision. Environmentalists call the group the "God Squad" because it can decide the fate of some species. It is comprised of several administration officials and chaired by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
RELATED: Gulf Coast Whale Festival returns to Pensacola with spotlight on endangered Rice’s whale
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth requested the meeting, noting that environmentalists' lawsuits threatened to hobble domestic energy supplies as the U.S. wages war against Iran. He wants offshore oil and gas drilling in the Gulf to be exempt in the name of "national security."
The U.S. pumps more oil than any other nation, but that hasn't insulated it from spiking prices as a result of the war. The national average for a gallon of gasoline topped $4 on 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."
Martha Collins, executive director of the environmental group Healthy Gulf, scoffs at that assertion. She says a lawsuit will soon be filed.
"I think this signals the administration is getting ready to open up the eastern Gulf to drilling because that's the Rice's whales' primary habitat."Martha Collins of Healthy Gulf
"Wouldn't it make more sense that Iran would be a threat to national security, Venezuela might be a threat to national security, but no, they're saying the Rice's whale is a threat to national security," Collins said.
She added that she thinks this is a signal the administration is getting ready to open up the eastern Gulf to drilling, as that's the Rice's whales' primary habitat.
"And so they're trying to circumvent the legal process here because they know they're going to lose in court, and they know that every single member of the Florida congressional delegation signed a letter demanding that the Trump administration not open up the eastern Gulf to drilling. So I think it's another smoke-and-mirror show," she said.
ALSO READ: Restrictions on ship speeds removed in endangered Rice's whales' Gulf habitat
Environmentalists are particularly concerned for the future of the Rice's whale. There are estimated to about 50 Rice's whales left, mostly in the northeastern Gulf. The population collapsed after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill.
The Rice's whale was recognized as a distinct species in 2021.
Last year, the National Marine Fisheries Service issued a biological opinion concluding that oil industry ship strikes were jeopardizing the existence of the extremely endangered Rice's whale, which lives only in the Gulf, and harming endangered sperm whales and sea turtles. This followed a 2020 opinion reaching the same conclusion.
The agency therefore established "reasonable and prudent alternatives" requiring the oil industry to drive boats at slower speeds within the whales' core habitat in the eastern Gulf and to monitor the location of Rice's whales to avoid accidentally striking and killing them.
The Gulf produces about 2 million barrels of oil a day, accounting for almost 15% of crude pumped annually in the U.S. The drilling 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.
The environmental group Earthjustice said there are no oil and gas projects in the Gulf being held up by the Endangered Species Act.
"In fact, the Trump administration is already letting oil and gas corporations 'incidentally kill' imperiled wildlife through a 2025 biological opinion," it said in a news release. "It allows oil and gas corporations to kill or harm a half-million sea turtles every year for the next 45 years – an underestimate that, incredibly, doesn't even include harm from oil spills."
Steve Mashuda, managing attorney for Earthjustice's Oceans Program, issued this statement:
"The Trump administration is exploiting its self-made gas crisis to get rid of protections for endangered whales and other imperiled species in the Gulf of Mexico. Secretary Hegseth and his Extinction Committee claim this will eventually cut costs for cash-strapped Americans, but Gulf communities know what unrestrained drilling will really bring: devastating oil spills and the destruction of ecosystems and coastal economies.
"Earthjustice and our partners will go to court to stop this illegal order."
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 Endangered Species Committee from convening.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
Copyright 2026 WUSF 89.7
