GULF OF MEXICO — The U.S. Endangered Species Committee unanimously voted on March 31, 2026, to exempt oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from the Endangered Species Act. The committee, which convened for the first time since 1992, approved the exemption on national security grounds.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth requested the exemption in mid-March, notifying Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on March 13 that the exemption was necessary for national security reasons, according to a court filing. Government officials have not disclosed the rationale for the national security request.

"The Strait of Hormuz is the world's busiest oil route and recent hostile action by the Iranian terror regime highlights yet again why robust domestic oil production is a national security imperative," Hegseth said. "Disruptions to gulf oil production doesn't hurt just us, it benefits our adversaries."

The request for the exemption came with global oil shocks and rising energy prices due to the war with Iran. The national average price of a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. topped $4 for the first time since 2022. Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on February 28.

The exemption was only the third time in the committee's 53-year history that it has approved such an exemption. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum chairs the Endangered Species Committee, which comprises several Trump administration officials.

The Endangered Species Act, passed in 1973 to protect at-risk animals and plants in the United States from the impacts of development, includes measures such as banning activities in certain areas where species could be harmed or killed, including dam construction. The committee has the power to bypass the act for national security reasons or when no alternative to a project exists.

Only about 51 Rice's whales remain and are found exclusively in the Gulf of Mexico. In 2025, the National Marine Fisheries Service concluded that oil and gas activities in the Gulf would lead to the extinction of the Rice's whale, according to the service. The service recommended precautionary measures such as reducing vessel speeds to protect the whales. Those precautionary measures will no longer apply following the exemption.

Steve Mashuda, an attorney for Earthjustice, said the administration is using its own gas shortage to remove protections for endangered whales and other at-risk species in the Gulf of Mexico. "Secretary Hegseth and his extinction committee claim this will eventually cut costs for cash-strapped Americans, but gulf communities know what unrestrained drilling will really bring: devastating oil spills and the destruction of ecosystems and coastal economies," Mashuda 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. That's how precarious the condition of the Rice's whale is," said Patrick Parenteau, an emeritus professor of law at Vermont Law School.