This blog post highlights a recent op-ed published in USA Today that warns how federal policy decisions expanding offshore oil and gas drilling are accelerating the decline of the critically endangered Rice’s whale, undermining environmental protections and putting one of the rarest marine species at even greater risk of extinction.

One of the world’s most critically endangered whales is being forced onto an accelerated path toward extinction by our government’s reckless and unlawful policy decisions.

With all the advances of modern science in the Twenty-First Century, you’d think that one of the largest mammals in the world would be easy to identify.

You would think.

And yet, we didn’t officially classify Rice’s whale as its own distinct species until five years ago.…