2026年3月31日 / 美国东部时间下午4:48 / 哥伦比亚广播公司/美联社
特朗普政府周二将墨西哥湾的油气钻井活动豁免《濒危物种法》约束。此前美国国防部长皮特·赫格斯瑟表示，环保组织的诉讼有可能在美国对伊朗开战之际削弱国内能源供应。
批评人士指出，美国濒危物种委员会的这一举措可能会导致一种稀有鲸类灭绝，并损害其他海洋生物。该委员会被反对者戏称为“上帝天团”，称其有权决定物种的存亡，由多名特朗普政府官员组成，内政部长道格·伯根担任主席。
该委员会周二召开了三十多年来的首次会议，当时正值全球石油市场震荡和伊朗战争推高能源价格。美国石油产量位居全球第一，但仍未能免受油价飙升的影响：美国全国汽油均价周二首次突破每加仑4美元，上一次出现这一情况还是在2022年。
“墨西哥湾石油生产中断不仅损害我们自身利益，还会让我们的对手获益，”赫格斯瑟在委员会会议上说。“我们不能让我们自己的规则削弱我们的地位，壮大那些企图伤害我们的人。当墨西哥湾的开发活动受阻时，我们就无法生产作为一个国家和一个部门所需的能源。”
环保组织未能阻止周二的会议，并承诺将对这项豁免令提起诉讼。他们表示，该豁免令将加速仅栖息于墨西哥湾的稀有莱斯氏鲸的灭绝。政府生物学家称，目前仅存约50头该物种。
“如果特朗普在此事上得逞，他可能会成为历史上首个刻意将一个物种从地球表面彻底消灭的人。莱斯氏鲸的生存状况已经岌岌可危，”佛蒙特大学法学院名誉教授帕特里克·帕伦托说道。帕伦托驳斥了赫格斯瑟所称的国家安全威胁说法，指出尽管针对这种极度濒危鲸鱼的法律诉讼仍在进行，企业仍在墨西哥湾持续勘探和开采石油。
简化钻井审批流程
自1995年以来，由于担心漏油事故，联邦政府一直禁止在东墨西哥湾联邦海域开展钻井活动，这片海域包括佛罗里达州近海和阿拉巴马州部分近海区域。在其第二任期的最后几天，前总统乔·拜登以气候危机为由，试图禁止在美国大部分沿海海域开展新的近海油气钻井活动。
特朗普总统推翻了这一政策，并将增加化石燃料生产作为其第二任期的核心议程。这位共和党人希望开放佛罗里达州海岸外的墨西哥湾新区域用于钻井，并提议全面放宽行业反感的环保监管规定。
赫格斯瑟于3月13日通知伯根，出于国家安全理由，对墨西哥湾油气钻井实施《濒危物种法》豁免“十分必要”。
赫格斯瑟周二向委员会成员表示，伊朗试图封锁全球最繁忙的石油航道霍尔木兹海峡，凸显了加强国内石油生产的国家安全必要性。他称环保组织 pending的诉讼“威胁要叫停”墨西哥湾的石油生产。
特朗普本人也曾表达对1973年出台的《濒危物种法》及类似环保保护措施的不满，称环保主义者阻碍了经济增长。特朗普政府还另有计划全面修订《濒危物种法》，以便在濒危物种栖息地开展建设更加容易。
行业观察人士表示，这项豁免令将简化新项目审批流程，并阻碍反对者阻挠钻井计划的能力，可能会对能源公司产生重大影响。
“针对合法、监管完善的行业发起的连环诉讼，不应被允许无限期阻碍具有明确国家重要性的项目，”代表近海开发商的美国海洋工业协会的埃里克·米利托说道。
墨西哥湾是美国顶级产油区之一，每日产量达200万桶。其原油年产量约占美国总产量的15%，同时也贡献了一小部分国内天然气产量。
墨西哥湾也曾发生过2010年英国石油公司“深水地平线”井喷事故，造成11名工人死亡，1.34亿加仑原油泄漏的环境灾难。科学家表示，事故发生后莱斯氏鲸的数量下降了22%，恢复可能需要数十年时间。
本月早些时候，墨西哥近海发生一起漏油事故，泄漏范围蔓延373英里，污染了至少6个物种，并破坏了7个受保护的自然保护区。
特朗普政府于3月中旬批准了英国石油公司在墨西哥湾价值50亿美元的新超深水钻井项目。
鲸鱼、海龟和鲟鱼面临风险
前联邦灾难响应专家和全国性环保组织提出担忧，称特朗普第二任期头几个月的裁员和资金削减可能会削弱政府应对诸如去年路易斯安那州墨西哥湾沿岸漏油事故的能力——那次泄漏迅速污染了湿地，威胁到重要的野生动物栖息地和渔业资源。
美国国家海洋和大气管理局渔业部门2025年的一份分析报告也指出，墨西哥湾油气项目可能会对多种鲸鱼、海龟和墨西哥湾鲟鱼造成伤害。这些物种可能会受到船舶碰撞、漏油和其他影响的威胁。
此次墨西哥湾豁免是首次以国家安全为由，请求濒危物种委员会采取行动。保护组织随即谴责了这一举措，并声称其违法。
“《濒危物种法》从未阻碍过墨西哥湾一滴石油的开采，”野生动物保卫组织主席安德鲁·鲍曼说道。“我怎么强调都不为过，这一行动是前所未闻且非法的。”
自1973年以来，《濒危物种法》将伤害或杀害受保护物种列为非法行为。该委员会于1978年成立，旨在为那些在某一地区没有其他替代方案可提供同等经济效益，或符合国家最佳利益的项目提供豁免。
在本周之前，该委员会仅召开过三次会议，仅发布过两项豁免令。第一次是在1979年，允许在怀俄明州普拉特河上修建水坝，这里是鸣鹤的栖息地。该委员会上一次召开会议是在1992年，当时批准在俄勒冈州北部斑点猫头鹰栖息地开展伐木活动，但该项豁免请求后来被撤回。
此次会议紧随一名联邦法官周一的裁决之后，该裁决推翻了特朗普第一任期内削弱濒危物种保护规则的多项尝试。
委员会成员包括农业部长、内政部长和陆军部长、经济顾问委员会主席，以及环境保护署和国家海洋和大气管理局的局长。他们全都投票支持赫格斯瑟提出的豁免请求。
Trump administration exempts oil and gas drilling in the Gulf from Endangered Species Act
March 31, 2026 / 4:48 PM EDT / CBS/AP
The Trump administration on Tuesday exempted oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from the Endangered Species Act after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said environmentalists’ lawsuits threatened to hobble domestic energy supplies as the U.S. wages war against Iran.
Critics said the move by the government’s Endangered Species Committee could doom a rare whale species and harm other marine life. Nicknamed the “God Squad” by groups who say it can decide a species’ fate, the committee comprises several Trump administration officials and is chaired by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
It met Tuesday for the first time in more than three decades amid global oil shocks and soaring energy prices brought on by the Iran war. The U.S. pumps more oil than any other nation, but that hasn’t insulated it from spiking prices: The national average for a gallon of gasoline topped $4 Tuesday for the first time since 2022.
“Disruptions to Gulf oil production doesn’t hurt just us, it benefits our adversaries,” Hegseth told the committee. “We cannot allow our own rules to weaken our standing and strengthen those who wish to harm us. When development in the Gulf is chilled, we are prevented from producing the energy we need as a country and as a department.”
Environmental groups sought unsuccessfully to block Tuesday’s meeting and pledged to challenge the exemption. They say the exemption would speed the extinction of the rare Rice’s whale, which is found exclusively in the Gulf of Mexico. Government biologists say only about 50 of the animals remain.
“If Trump is successful here, he could be the first person in history to knowingly extirpate a species from the face of the earth. That’s how precarious the condition of the Rice’s whale is,” said Patrick Parenteau, emeritus professor of law at Vermont Law School. Parenteau dismissed Hegseth’s claims of a security threat, since companies have continued to look for and extract oil in the Gulf despite legal challenges over the critically endangered whale.
Streamlined approvals for drilling
The federal government has not allowed drilling in federal waters in the eastern Gulf, which includes offshore Florida and part of offshore Alabama, since 1995, because of concerns about oil spills. During his last days in office, former President Joe Biden sought to ban new offshore oil and gas drilling in most U.S. coastal waters, citing the climate crisis.
President Trump reversed that policy and made increased fossil fuel production a central focus of his second term. The Republican wants to open new areas of the Gulf off the Florida coast to drilling, and has proposed sweeping rollbacks of environmental regulations disliked by industry.
Hegseth notified Burgum on March 13 that an Endangered Species Act exemption for oil and gas drilling in the Gulf was “necessary for reasons of national security.”
Hegseth told committee members Tuesday that Iran’s efforts to block shipping through the world’s busiest oil route, the Strait of Hormuz, underscored the national security imperative of robust domestic oil production. He said pending litigation from environmental groups “threatened to halt” oil production in the Gulf.
Mr. Trump has voiced his own frustration with the 1973 law and similar environmental protections, saying environmentalists are impeding growth. The Trump administration also has other plans to overhaul the Endangered Species Act to make it easier to build in the U.S. where endangered species live.
Industry observers said the exemption could have significant implications for energy companies by streamlining approvals of new projects and impeding opponents’ ability to derail drilling plans.
“Serial litigation from activist groups targeting a lawful, well-regulated industry should not be allowed to indefinitely obstruct projects of clear national importance,” said Erik Milito with the National Ocean Industries Association, which represents offshore developers.
The Gulf of Mexico is one of the nation’s top oil regions, producing 2 million barrels a day. It accounts for almost 15% of crude pumped annually in the U.S., plus a small share of domestic natural gas production.
The Gulf of Mexico also has been the scene of environmental disasters such as BP’s Deepwater Horizon blowout in 2010 that killed 11 workers and spilled 134 million gallons of oil. Rice’s whale numbers dropped by 22% following the accident and could take decades to recover, scientists said.
A spill in the Gulf earlier this month off the Mexican coast spread 373 miles, contaminating at least six species and polluting seven protected natural reserves.
The Trump administration in mid-March approved BP’s new $5 billion ultra-deepwater drilling project in the Gulf.
Whales, turtles and sturgeon at risk
Former federal disaster response specialists and national environmental groups have raised concerns that job and funding cuts in the early months of Mr. Trump’s second term could hamper the government’s response to incidents such as last year’s oil spill off Louisiana’s Gulf Coast— a leak that quickly contaminated marshlands and threatened vital wildlife habitats and fisheries.
A 2025 National Marine Fisheries Service analysis also determined the Gulf oil and gas program was likely to harm several species of whales, sea turtles and Gulf sturgeon. They face potential harm from ship strikes, oil spills and other impacts.
The Gulf exemption is the first time national security has been cited to justify action by the Endangered Species Committee. Conservation groups immediately condemned the action and asserted it was done illegally.
“The Endangered Species Act has not slowed an iota of oil from being extracted from the Gulf,” said Defenders of Wildlife President Andrew Bowman. “I cannot stress enough how unprecedented and unlawful this action is.”
Since 1973, the Endangered Species Act has made it illegal to harm or kill species on a protected list. The committee was formed in 1978 as a way to exempt projects if no alternative would provide the same economic benefits in a region or if it was in the nation’s best interest.
Before this week, the panel had convened just three times and issued only two exemptions. The first was in 1979 to allow construction on a dam on the Platte River in Wyoming, home to the whooping crane. It last met in 1992, allowing logging in northern spotted owl habitats in Oregon. That exemption request was later withdrawn.
Its latest meeting follows a federal judge’s ruling on Monday that struck down attempts during Mr. Trump’s first term to weaken rules for endangered species.
The panel’s members include the secretaries of agriculture, interior and the Army, the chairperson of the Council of Economic Advisers, and the administrators of both the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They all voted in favor of Hegseth’s request for an exemption.
