Federal Panel Waives Species Protections for Gulf of Mexico Drilling

Drilling Exemption Approved

A powerful panel of Trump administration officials voted unanimously on Tuesday to exempt oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from measures intended to protect endangered whales and other imperiled species.

The panel, the Endangered Species Committee, is often called the “God Squad” because it has the power to decide whether protections for a species can be set aside. The decision was adopted during a brief, closed-door meeting at the Interior Department.

Until Tuesday, the committee had convened only three times and had not met in the past three decades.

Broader Rollback of Species Protections

The vote marked the latest move by the Trump administration to weaken the Endangered Species Act, the longstanding environmental law aimed at preventing plant and animal extinctions. In November, the administration had already proposed relaxing restrictions on drilling, logging and mining in critical habitats for endangered species across the country.

Administration officials said protections for endangered species had hindered oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, which President Trump calls the Gulf of America. They argued that lifting those protections would increase domestic energy supplies and strengthen national security.

National Security Argument

Speaking at the meeting, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that when development in the Gulf is constrained, the country is prevented from producing the energy it needs.

He also said that recent hostile action by Iran underscored the need for robust domestic oil production as a national security priority, while adding that the administration’s concerns predated the Middle East war and the resulting increase in gasoline prices.

The Gulf of Mexico is home to critically endangered whales and other imperiled wildlife, which had been protected under Endangered Species Act restrictions now overridden by the committee’s vote.