GULF OF MEXICO — The Endangered Species Committee granted a request to exempt oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from endangered species laws on Tuesday. The Trump administration wants to expand oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth invoked national security in seeking an exemption from endangered species laws, citing higher energy prices driven by the Iran war. Scientists fear that expanding oil and gas drilling could push Rice's whale to extinction.

Rice's whale is the only whale species that lives year-round in the Gulf of Mexico. There are fewer than 100 Rice's whales remaining and possibly fewer than 50. The species was recognized as distinct in 2021.

Rice's whale is usually found in a narrow area in the northeastern part of the Gulf of Mexico in waters 100 to 400 meters deep. The whales dive to the gulf floor for fatty fish, mainly silver-rag driftfish, during the day and rest close to the surface at night.

Rice's whales are vulnerable to vessel strikes, noise pollution, oil spills and climate change. Noise from drilling could disrupt Rice's whales' foraging behavior. A portion of Rice's whales' population is believed to have been killed by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

"It is every endangered or threatened species in the Gulf of Mexico," said Michael Jasny, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's marine mammal protection project. Other animals, including threatened manatees and endangered sea turtles, could be put at risk by more drilling.

"The ocean is connected, so when there is this kind of action somewhere else, it does have implications across the waters," said Letise LaFeir, chief of conservation and stewardship at the New England Aquarium.

The Endangered Species Committee was established in 1978 to exempt projects from Endangered Species Act protections after a cost-benefit analysis concluded it was the only way to achieve net economic benefits in the national or regional interest. The committee has seven members: the secretary of the Interior, five other federal officials, and affected states sharing one vote. Five votes are required for an exemption.

Before the recent exemption, the Endangered Species Committee had only issued exemptions twice. One past exemption was for construction of a dam on a section of the Platte River considered critical habitat for whooping cranes and involved a negotiated settlement that led to ecosystem improvements. A second past exemption request was for logging in northern spotted owl habitat, but it was withdrawn after environmental groups sued.