Trump Administration Waives Endangered Species Act for Gulf Oil & Gas

A rare Rice's whale in the Gulf (NOAA file image)

The Trump administration has waived all Endangered Species Act protections for all U.S. Gulf offshore oil and gas activity, citing a national defense requirement for stable energy supplies.

The administration has expressed concern about the alleged impact of offshore energy development on North Atlantic right whales (off New England), but has also supported energy projects that would negatively impact endangered populations of beluga whales (off Alaska) and Rice's whales (in the U.S. Gulf). The new action extends administration policy to lift environmental constraints on offshore oil and gas in the Gulf, and it sets a precedent for use of a little-known national defense exception written into the Endangered Species Act.

To set aside U.S. Gulf offshore oil and gas as an exempt activity, Interior Secretary Doub Burgum and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth convened the rarely-used Endangered Species Committee, better known in environmental circles as the "God Squad" for its power to take decisions affecting other species' survival. The committee - made up of administration officials - has the ability to waive the ESA for national defense purposes. In a meeting this week, its members determined that offshore oil and gas production in the U.S. Gulf region needs a permanent blanket exemption.

"Disruption to Gulf oil production doesn't hurt just us, it benefits our adversaries," Secretary Hegseth said in a statement. "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."

Oil and gas interests supported the move, and have thanked the administration for taking action.

“Offshore oil and gas activities in the Gulf of America are already subject to one of the most comprehensive and robust environmental regulatory frameworks in the world,” said Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association. “Today’s decision reflects that these robust protections are in place, and that serial litigation from activist groups targeting a lawful, well-regulated industry should not be allowed to indefinitely obstruct projects of clear national importance.”

The administration's ESA exemption throws up a roadblock to environmental lawsuits to protect the rare Rice's whale. Conservationists claim that offshore operations threaten the survival of the reclusive whale, of which only 50 individuals are believed to remain; it is believed to be possible that the loss of a single breeding female could destabilize the surviving population. With the ESA exemption announced Tuesday, the Trump administration could become the first in history to take an action that foreseeably exterminates a species, law professor Patrick Parenteau told PBS - and not just any species, but the first whale species ever to disappear from human action.