As someone who helped write the last amendments to the Endangered Species Act 37 years ago, it is painful to see the scant attention being paid to a Trump administration decision to exempt from the Endangered Species Act oil and gas drilling and operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

March 31, 2026 - 20:43 UTC

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The Trump cabinet members who make up the Endangered Species Committee (aka "God Squad") voted to allow oil and gas development in the Gulf even if it will result in the extinction of the ~50 remaining Rice's whales.
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The unprecedented breadth of the exemption for Gulf oil and gas development will also deny protections from extinction for other threatened and endangered species, such as sea turtles, whooping cranes and manatees.
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