Endangered Species Committee Grants National Security Exemption for Gulf of America Oil and Gas Activities

On March 31, 2026, the Endangered Species Committee (ESC) held a public meeting in Washington, DC, and unanimously voted to grant an exemption from the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for all oil and gas exploration, development, and production activities associated with BOEM's and BSEE's Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Program in the Gulf of America. The exemption was triggered by a March 13, 2026 letter from the Secretary of War (Secretary of the Army), who invoked Section 7(j) of the ESA, finding that the exemption was necessary for reasons of national security. Under this exemption, federal agencies implementing Gulf of America Oil and Gas Activities are no longer required to comply with the ESA's Section 7(a)(2) procedural consultation requirements or the substantive 'jeopardy' and 'adverse modification' prohibitions. Additionally, actions that would ordinarily constitute a 'take' of a protected species are no longer prohibited under the ESA for these activities. The exemption is effective immediately and applies for the full duration and scope of the covered activities. Despite the broad exemption, the Committee ordered that avoidance and minimization measures described in NMFS's 2025 biological opinion and FWS's 2018 and 2025 consultation decisions must continue to be implemented. The Committee reasoned that Section 7(j)'s 'notwithstanding any other provision' language supersedes the normal ESA application requirements and standards that would otherwise govern an exemption request. Judicial review of this decision is available exclusively in the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fifth or Eleventh Circuits, as the covered activities occur in Gulf of America federal and state waters.

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