A US government committee is scheduled to meet on Tuesday for the first time since 1992 to consider the matter Exception for oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico from the Endangered Species Act over unspecified national security concerns, a move critics say could wipe out a rare species of whales and harm other marine life.
Nicknamed “God’s Squad” The Endangered Species Commission, created by groups that say they can determine the fate of species, consists of several Trump administration officials and is chaired by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
Republican President Donald Trump has made increasing fossil fuel production a major focus of his second term. He wants it Opening new areas in the Gulf Off the coast of Florida for drilling, and proposed a comprehensive rollback of environmental regulations that the industry does not like.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth informed Burgum on March 13 that an exemption under the Endangered Species Act for oil and gas drilling in the Gulf was “necessary for reasons of national security,” according to a court filing from the administration.
Government officials did not disclose the rationale for the request, which came amid global oil shocks and rising energy prices caused by the Iran war. Experts say the administration must determine a military need that would endanger the species in order to make a national security exception.
The Gulf of Mexico is one of the country’s largest oil-producing regions. It represents more than 10% of the crude oil pumped annually in the United States, in addition to a small share of domestic natural gas production.
But the Gulf has also been the scene of environmental disasters such as the BP disaster Deepwater Horizon explosion in 2010 It killed 11 workers and spilled 134 million gallons (500 million litres) of oil. A Leakage in the Gulf Earlier this month it spread 373 miles (600 kilometers), tainting at least six species and contaminating seven protected nature reserves.
In mid-March, the Trump administration approved BP’s new $5 billion deepwater drilling project in the Gulf.
Environmental groups sought In vain to prevent Tuesday meeting. They claimed that the exemption would condemn the rare Rice’s whale to extinction. Only about 50 of them remain in the Gulf.
The judge who rejected the environmentalists’ request noted that it was premature because officials had not yet acted on the proposed exemption.
A 2025 analysis by the National Marine Fisheries Service found that the Gulf’s oil and gas program would likely harm many species of whales, sea turtles and Gulf sturgeon that face potential harm from ship strikes, oil spills and other impacts.
The Endangered Species Committee was established in 1978 as a way to exempt projects from the risk of extinction Endangered Species Actwhich makes it illegal to harm or kill a protected-listed species, if there is no alternative that provides the same economic benefits in an area or if it is in the nation’s best interest.
The committee has met only three times during its 53-year history, and has issued only two exceptions. The first was in 1979 to allow construction of a dam on the Platte River in Wyoming, home of the whooping crane. It last met in 1992, allowing logging in northern spotted owl habitat in Oregon. This exemption request was later withdrawn.
Its latest meeting follows a ruling by a federal judge on Monday that struck down attempts during Trump’s first term to weaken rules on endangered species.
Committee members include the Secretaries of Agriculture, the Interior, and the Army, the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, and the administrators of both the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The Associated Press left emails and phone messages to Interior and Defense Department officials seeking comment.