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A U.S. government panel was due to convene Tuesday for the first time since 1992 to consider exempting oil and gas drilling<\/a> in the Gulf of Mexico from the Endangered Species Act due to unspecified national security concerns, a move critics say could doom a rare whale species and harm other marine life.<\/p>\n Nicknamed the \u201cGod Squad\u201d<\/a> by groups who say it can decide a species\u2019 fate, the Endangered Species Committee comprises several Trump administration officials and is chaired by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.<\/p>\n Republican President Donald Trump has made increased fossil fuel production a central focus of his second term. He wants to open new areas of the Gulf<\/a> off the Florida coast to drilling, and has proposed sweeping rollbacks of environmental regulations disliked by industry.<\/p>\n Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth notified Burgum on March 13 that an Endangered Species Act exemption for oil and gas drilling in the Gulf was \u201cnecessary for reasons of national security,\u201d according to a court filing from the administration. <\/p>\n Government officials have not disclosed the rationale for the request, which came amid global oil shocks and soaring energy prices brought on by the Iran war. Experts say the administration must specify the military need that would endanger a species to make a case for the national security exemption.<\/p>\n The Gulf of Mexico is one of the nation\u2019s top oil-producing regions. It accounts for more than 10% of crude pumped annually in the U.S., plus a small share of domestic natural gas production.<\/p>\n But the Gulf also has been the scene of environmental disasters such as BP\u2019s Deepwater Horizon blowout in 2010<\/a> that killed 11 workers and spilled 134 million gallons (500 million liters) of oil. A spill in the Gulf<\/a> earlier this month spread 373 miles (600 kilometers), contaminating at least six species and polluting seven protected natural reserves. <\/p>\n The Trump administration in mid-March approved BP\u2019s new $5 billion ultra-deepwater drilling project in the Gulf.<\/p>\n Environmental groups sought unsuccessfully to block<\/a> Tuesday\u2019s meeting. They claimed an exemption would doom the rare Rice\u2019s whale to extinction. Only about 50 remain in the Gulf. <\/p>\n A judge who struck down the environmentalists’ request suggested it was premature since officials had not yet acted on the proposed exemption.<\/p>\n A 2025 National Marine Fisheries Service analysis determined the Gulf oil and gas program was likely to harm several species of whales, sea turtles and Gulf sturgeon that face potential harm from ship strikes, oil spills and other impacts.<\/p>\n