The Trump administration on Tuesday exempted oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from the Endangered Species Act, a decision made by a panel known as the “God Squad” and supported by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as a national-security move. Hegseth told committee members that environmentalists’ lawsuits threatened domestic energy supplies as the United States wages war against Iran, and he argued that disruptions to Gulf production would aid U.S. adversaries.
The committee met Tuesday for the first time in more than three decades, amid global oil market volatility and rising energy prices attributed in part to the Iran war. While the United States produces more oil than any other nation, the national average for a gallon of gasoline topped $4 on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press report.
Hegseth said disruptions to Gulf oil production “doesn’t hurt just us” but “benefits our adversaries,” and he argued the administration could not allow its rules to weaken U.S. standing while strengthening those who seek to harm the country. He also said litigation from environmental groups “threatened to halt” Gulf oil production.
Critics said the committee’s exemption could doom marine life, including the Rice’s whale, which is found exclusively in the Gulf of Mexico. Government biologists told the committee that only about 50 Rice’s whales remain, and conservation groups argued the exemption would speed the extinction of the species.
One conservation attorney warned the consequences could be irreversible. Patrick Parenteau, an emeritus professor of law at Vermont Law School, said, “If Trump is successful here, he could be the first person in history to knowingly extirpate a species from the face of the earth,” and he called the species’ status precarious.
Parenteau dismissed Hegseth’s claim of a national-security threat by noting that companies have continued seeking oil and extracting in the Gulf despite legal challenges over the critically endangered whale. The Center for Biological Diversity asked U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras in Washington on Tuesday to cancel the exemption, after Contreras last week declined the group’s request to stop the committee from convening.
The Endangered Species Committee is chaired by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and includes other top officials, and the administration said the committee unanimously supported the exemption request. The officials cited in the AP report included Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, White House Council of Economic Advisers Acting Chair Pierre Yared, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Administrator Neil Jacobs, and Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll.
Driscoll told the committee he could “personally attest that disruptions to oil and gas production in the Gulf would significantly impact the Army’s ability to man, train and equip combat-ready formations.” The administration also characterized the exemption as a way to streamline approvals for drilling projects, and industry groups argued the move would help energy developers proceed and would limit opponents’ ability to derail plans through litigation.
Industry representatives said the exemption could have implications for companies by streamlining approvals while constraining legal efforts to stop offshore projects. Erik Milito of the National Ocean Industries Association said “Serial litigation from activist groups targeting a lawful, well-regulated industry should not be allowed to indefinitely obstruct projects of clear national importance.”
Environmental risks in the Gulf also formed part of the backdrop for conservation opposition. A 2025 National Marine Fisheries Service analysis determined that the Gulf oil and gas program was likely to harm several species of whales, sea turtles and Gulf sturgeon, warning they face potential harm from ship strikes, oil spills and other impacts, and conservation groups said the exemption was unlawful.
The report also placed the decision in the context of shifting U.S. energy policy. During his last days in office, former Democratic President Joe Biden sought to ban new offshore oil and gas drilling in most U.S. coastal waters, citing the climate crisis. The Trump administration reversed that policy and made increased fossil fuel production a central focus, with Hegseth citing Iran’s chokehold on traffic through the Strait of Hormuz as underscoring the national-security imperative of robust domestic oil production.
The Endangered Species Committee has operated under rules designed to grant exemptions when no alternative would provide comparable economic benefits or when a project is in the nation’s best interest. Since 1973, the Endangered Species Act has made it illegal to harm or kill species on a protected list, and the committee formed in 1978 to consider exemptions.
According to the AP report, before this week the panel convened just three times and issued only two exemptions, including a 1979 decision to allow construction on a dam on the Platte River in Wyoming for the whooping crane. It last met in 1992 to allow logging in northern spotted owl habitats in Oregon, and that exemption request was later withdrawn.