If these whales go extinct, we’ll know who to blame

In the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico lives one of the world’s rarest and most elusive marine mammals: Rice’s whale. There are just 51 of them left, according to the most recent scientific estimates, meaning they are quite literally on the knife’s edge of extinction.

That’s why, in 2019, the federal government — then under President Donald Trump’s first term — gave these sleek marine mammals a lifeline. It listed them as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, the most powerful wildlife protection law in the country and among the strongest in the world

The law makes killing or harming the animals illegal, with some exceptions. It also requires that federal agencies, including those that approve oil and gas leases, ensure that their actions won’t threaten the existence of species with ESA protection. This was key for Rice’s whale, as the main threat they face is from the Gulf’s oil and gas industry: vessel strikes, noise from exploration, and spills.

Protecting the whale under federal law gave it a chance for survival, environmental groups said when it was listed. But the new Trump administration has shown a formidable ability to water down, or sidestep entirely, protections for species under the law — especially if those animals live in areas with an active oil and gas industry.

That brings us to this week: On Tuesday, several top Trump officials convened a rarely assembled panel known as the God Squad — a committee, led by the Interior Secretary, that has the power to override the Endangered Species Act and approve activities that could potentially drive species to extinction. Congress created the committee in 1978, not long after the ESA was enacted, for rare cases when adhering to endangered species protections threaten the US economy or national security. It’s essentially a loophole in the Act, and it’s only been invoked a handful of times before. 

In Tuesday’s meeting, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth — the highest ranking official present — said ESA protections for animals in the Gulf, such as Rice’s whales, threaten to limit oil production. The Gulf produces about 15 percent of the country’s crude oil, he said, which helps power the military and defend the US. “Exemption from the Endangered Species Act in the Gulf is not just a good idea, it is a critical matter of national security,” Hegseth told the panel.

The meeting lasted only around 15 minutes and the panel voted unanimously to exempt oil and gas activity in the Gulf from ESA protections. It was the first time the “God Squad” — formerly known as the Endangered Species Committee — has ever granted an exemption on the grounds of national security.

What Hegseth didn’t say is that ESA regulations for Rice’s whales and other species don’t forbid oil and gas drilling, they just require that companies take measures to avoid harming them, such as by minimizing shipping traffic in the whales’ core habitat. (There was also no discussion about the administration’s role in disrupting the flow of oil due to the war in Iran.)

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, meanwhile, pointed out that efforts to stop energy production in the Gulf — which, again, are not what the law does — displace fossil fuel production to countries that don’t produce energy as cleanly and safely as the US. Yet Burgum’s Interior Department has been sidelining clean energy projects in favor of dirtier fuels, such as oil and coal. The memory of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill is also still fresh. It spewed 134 million gallons of oil into the Gulf, creating a real national emergency. Not to mention: Rice’s whales declined by an estimated 22 percent after the disaster. 

“What happened today is a warrant for the extinction of endangered species in the Gulf, signed by political appointees on behalf of some of the wealthiest companies on Earth,” Andrew Wetzler, senior vice president for nature at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group, said in a statement. “The ‘God Squad’ was designed for impossible, intractable conflicts where there was no other way forward. That is not what this is.”

Measuring about the length of a school bus, Rice’s whales — named after the late whale scientist, Dale W. Rice — are found only in the Gulf of Mexico and nowhere else. For an animal so large and charismatic, scientists don’t know much about them. In fact, researchers only recently identified Rice’s whales as a new species.

Ultimately, the God Squad exemption may get stuck in the courts — the Center for Biological Diversity, a litigious advocacy group, said in a statement, “we’ll overturn it.” In the meantime, these whales will continue to struggle to hold on to their very existence.