God Squad waives ESA Gulf oil, endangers Rice’s whale
Get the Energy newsletter
Daily energy & climate — solar, EVs, oil, the policy fights and tech bets shaping the transition. Free.
- God Squad voted on March 31 to exempt oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico from the Endangered Species Act.
- Endangered Species Committee was created in 1978 after the Supreme Court’s Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill case, giving it authority to waive ESA even when a species faces extinction.
- Pat Parenteau says the exemption ignored required statutory steps and lacked a genuine national‑security justification.
- Pete Hegseth presented a national‑security argument, citing oil‑supply disruptions from the Iran war and the Straits of Hormuz, though no direct link to ESA was shown.
- Endangered species such as the critically endangered Rice’s whale (≈51 individuals), sperm whales, two sea‑turtle species and manatees would lose ESA protections under the waiver.
- Trump could become the first president linked to the extinction of a marine mammal, the Rice’s whale, if the waiver is upheld.
- Forest Service could be pressured to use the same national‑security exemption for timber harvesting, extending the precedent beyond Gulf oil.
Why it matters: Oil and gas developers gain unfettered access to Gulf drilling, while the critically endangered Rice’s whale—about 51 individuals—along with sperm whales, sea turtles and manatees lose federal ESA safeguards, raising the prospect that the national‑security exemption could be reused for other resources such as timber.
