Environmental advocates are decrying an upcoming meeting of the Endangered Species Committee that is slated to consider an “exemption under the Endangered Species Act with respect to oil and gas exploration, development, and production activities” in the Gulf of Mexico that critics warn would drive the Rice’s whale to extinction.
The Endangered Species Committee, which environmental advocates say hasn’t met in 36 years, is made up of six permanent Federal members, the Interior, Agriculture and Army secretaries as well as the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced in the Federal Register that the meeting would take place on March 31, 2026.
“The Committee is meeting regarding an exemption under the Endangered Species Act with respect to oil and gas exploration, development, and production activities in the Gulf of America associated with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Program.
“The meeting will be open to the public through livestreaming on https://youtube.com/?live/?iC3xyp4GxRE??feature=?share. The meeting will also be recorded and accessible at the DOI.gov/live events page for 60 days after the event.”
The Center for Biological Diversity said:
“This meeting violates the Endangered Species Act and, by limiting public participation, is an assault on our legal rights to speak up for species and the wild.
“Burgum is keeping secret what he wants to allow in the Gulf. And while the law requires an open hearing, the Interior Department plans to restrict public participation by only livestreaming the event.
“The law makes absolutely clear the Extinction Committee can’t meet in private. By hiding behind a web-only livestream, the committee is showing it’s afraid to meet in public.”
Jewel Tomasula, PhD, national policy director at the Endangered Species Coalition, added:
“The oil industry rakes in billions and executives pay themselves tens of millions annually, yet instead of rebudgeting a fraction of those resources for environmentally-conscious operations, they would doom the Gulf Rice’s whale to extinction. These whales are beautiful, and their recovery is also essential for restoring a healthy ocean ecosystem. The solutions to keep Gulf Rice’s whales alive are straightforward — slow ship speeds in where whales live, use quieter seismic survey technology, and don’t spill oil. Sadly, the oil industry would rather go to their buddy, Secretary Burgum, for total exemption from the Endangered Species Act.”
There are just 51 Rice’s whales left on Earth, advocates say, and all of them live in the Gulf. Endangered sea turtles, like the Kemp’s Ridley, depend on Gulf beaches for nesting.
