There may be no winners in war, but it seems certain that endangered species are among the losers of the ongoing Iran conflict.
On March 31, the Trump administration lifted environmental regulations on oil and gas companies in the Gulf of Mexico. The committee of cabinet officials who convened to grant the exceptions cited the reduced oil flow and elevated fuel prices caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz amidst the ongoing Iran War. Per the Endangered Species Act (ESA), this committee of six secretaries can make exemptions that they determine will serve the interest of national security.
Several environmental groups responded by filing two lawsuits against the Trump administration for what they claim is a misinterpretation of the 1973 conservation law. Alex Horn, the Communications Director for Healthy Gulf, one of the groups involved, explained how their lawsuit challenges the committee’s use of one ESA provision.
“Normally, in the Endangered Species Act, to call this committee meeting, there needs to be a project,” Horn said. “You have to have all of these steps, you have to have an actual project that can be reviewed. That did not happen this time. So they just made a blanket statement, and they said that all oil and gas development, exploration, pretty much all stages of it will be exempt.”
PBS reports that annually, almost 15% of U.S. crude oil production is pumped from offshore rigs, most near the coasts of Florida, Texas and Louisiana. The ESA requires companies that operate this drilling to take certain precautions protecting endangered marine life. Jay Kleberg, the executive director of the sustainability-focused Gulf Trust, explained some of the actions the legislation requires — and what could happen without them.
“You have either an oil rig that is placed on the seafloor, or now they actually have floating oil and gas rigs with motors that shift around with the ocean currents,” Kleberg said. “You have migratory birds come across the Yucatan, 600 miles, at night, and they see light in the middle of the ocean. They’re gonna be attracted to those lights, and will circle those as if it’s some sort of a sanctuary, and will literally fall out of the sky from exhaustion.”
Nature enthusiasts appreciate the Gulf coasts for the several hundred species of migratory birds that descend there after their flight from South America every fall. The several hundred species of migratory birds that descend on America’s Gulf coast after their flight from South America every fall attract nature enthusiasts from around the country. But Kleberg pointed out that the gulf’s interconnectedness also makes it vulnerable to local degradation.
“You may have something that’s in Florida one part of the month, and in Texas, and the Yucatan,” Kleberg said. “You’ve got all these migratory tuna, and sharks, and sailfish, and marlin, all these pelagic species that move around the Gulf.”
No environmental damage has been reported at this time, and it’s not clear whether companies altered their practices following the committee’s unanticipated decision. Other federal regulations may still protect endangered species from the seismic surveys and drilling that the ESA exemption theoretically permits. Those activities, Kleberg explained, can still take place under the ESA, which requires corporations to enact harm mitigation but not cease extraction.
“Something like a quarter of the U.S.’s oil production is in the Gulf of Mexico, so it’s not like it’s stopped anything necessarily,” Kleberg said. “It’s just that you’re taking care or you’re avoiding sensitive areas like Flower Garden Marine Sanctuary, which is about 100 miles off Galveston. And so you want to make sure you’re protecting these areas, because we have very few that are conserved in that way left.”
Protests that the environmental groups behind the recent lawsuits are holding focus on the ramifications of lifted regulations for endangered species, particularly the Rice’s Whale, whose population has dwindled to around 10. According to Horn, the lifting of regulations endangers the ability of conservation efforts to protect threatened species.
“I think the biggest threat is that a number of companies are pushing for more deep and ultra-deep water drilling,” Horn said. “We’re using technology that has not been really tested at these depths in the Gulf. And so any spill that happens, any breach in a pipeline, if they’re not following endangered species protections and critical habitat protections to clean that up with these species in mind and prevent it in the first place, it really does probably doom the Rice’s Whale to extinction.”