In his request that the Trump administration make the extraordinary move of waiving endangered species protections from oil and gas activity in the Gulf of Mexico, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth contended that existing lawsuits brought by environmentalists had already hampered energy development there.
Hegseth wrote that environmental litigation is “beginning to chill oil and gas development,” identifying three ongoing lawsuits by environmental groups related to endangered species concerns in the Gulf, which President Donald Trump has renamed the Gulf of America.
The Endangered Species Committee — a panel of six high-level officials — met Tuesday for the first time in decades, agreeing with the Defense secretary that national security concerns required them to grant a wide-ranging Endangered Species Act exemption for oil and gas activity in the Gulf.
But environmentalists contend they have not sought a shutdown of oil production in the region but rather that the industry be required to take greater precautions with imperiled species like the Rice’s whale.
