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Washington, D.C. – The Trump Administration is weakening pipeline safety and environmental rules at the same time a wave of at least 193 projects is underway to build more than 17,000 miles of pipelines across the U.S., increasing the risks of explosions, leaks, and pollution.
These are among the findings of a new report by the Environmental Integrity Project, “Tunnel Vision: Trumped Up ‘Energy Emergency’ Accelerates Pipeline Boom,” which documents the largest surge in gas pipeline construction in about two decades, since the dawn of the hydraulic fracturing era.
Most of the new pipelines (151 projects in 42 states) would carry natural gas, with the rise driven by booming exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and in part by the ravenous energy appetite of the growing data center industry, which is planning at least 98 gas-fired power plants dedicated to data centers.
If completed, the gas pipeline projects – 42 of them in Texas or crossing parts of the state, 27 in Louisiana, and nine each in Pennsylvania and Illinois – could transport nearly 126 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. This means the new projects alone could deliver almost 40 percent more natural gas than the U.S. consumed per day in 2025.
“When thousands of miles of pipelines are being built dangerously close to our homes, communities, and waterways, the Trump Administration should not be simultaneously undermining rules to prevent them from exploding, leaking, or spilling,” said Jen Duggan Executive Director of the Environmental Integrity Project. “We should be more carefully scrutinizing compliance with safety, public health, and environmental rules for pipelines, not giving companies a free pass from compliance with the law or rubber-stamping permits.”
As part of its “energy dominance” agenda to encourage fossil fuel infrastructure, the Trump Administration has been weakening pipeline safety rules and offering pipeline operators waivers from the enforcement of safety violations in large parts of the country, the EIP report found.
For example, the Trump Administration is allowing pipeline companies to increase the pressure of pipelines in densely populated areas and letting them conduct fewer pressure tests, which could raise the risk of accidents and explosions.
In a January 12, 2026 policy directive, the Trump Administration said that the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) would “refrain from taking any enforcement action” against pipeline companies that ask for waivers to avoid safety rules in the Northeast, West Coast and Alaska. Enforcement actions initiated by PHMSA last year (112) were about half the annual average from 2005 to 2024 (217).
EIP’s report notes that while many pipelines operate safely, failures can be catastrophic and deadly. For example, in March 2023, a crack in a gas pipeline in West Reading, Pennsylvania, caused an explosion in a chocolate factory that killed seven workers and injured 10 others.
In addition, the administration is using the Defense Production Act, a Korean War-era law, to support its novel argument that pipelines and other energy infrastructure are essential to national defense generally, which justifies the advancement of projects despite serious environmental concerns.
For example, the administration used the act in March to compel the restart of the Santa Ynez oil pipeline in Santa Barbara, California, after the state shut down the pipeline in 2015 because of a major oil spill that fouled 150 miles of coastline. Last week, the administration announced it would use Defense Production Act funding to provide up to $42 million to try to push through the hotly-protested 125-mile Constitution Pipeline from Pennsylvania to upstate New York, which the state has opposed.
The Trump Administration is proposing to curtail the ability of states to use a Clean Water Act certification process to protect rivers or streams that could be polluted by proposed pipelines. This change in what is called the Clean Water Act “section 401” certification process puts the administration in conflict with, for example, New York State, which has used denial of a 401 certification to protect state waters from the hotly-protested Constitution Pipeline project from northeast Pennsylvania to Albany, New York.
The administration is also weakening and narrowing protections for endangered species, speeding up wetland permit reviews, and limiting the scope of wetlands that require permits.
In researching the report, the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) studied thousands of pages of public records about pipeline projects, as well as permit applications, company announcements, and filings made with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), among other documents. The report found:
- Of the 193 pipeline projects that are proposed or under construction across the U.S., at least a quarter of them (52 of 193) have requested or received expedited or streamlined reviews from agencies including FERC and the Army Corps of Engineers because of President Trump’s baseless claim of an “energy emergency.”
- At least 81 of the pipeline projects proposed or under construction are expected to damage more than 19,000 acres of federally-protected wetlands.
- At least 30 percent of these pipeline projects with known wetlands impact – 25 of 81 – have requested or received accelerated reviews of wetlands permits due to Trump’s baseless claim of an “energy emergency.”
- The Trump Administration is proposing to strip federal protections from 94 percent of the nation’s wetlands, which would mean future pipelines and other construction projects would no longer have to apply for wetlands permits.
And for the wave of projects currently underway, the Trump Administration is curtailing opportunities for public participation in the permitting process that aims to reduce environmental impacts.
In some cases, the administration is allowing two weeks or less of public notification and comment for wetland permits, instead of the normal 30 days. For example, in Louisiana, the Army Corps of Engineers provided the public only 11 days to comment on a permit that would allow Venture Global to destroy or damage 1,428 acres of wetlands for construction of the 165-mile Cloud Connector pipeline, which would supply the expanding Plaquemines LNG export terminal, south of New Orleans.
The report includes local examples across the country of communities protesting the administration’s limiting of environmental and safety reviews for pipelines in their back yards, including for the CP Express Pipeline in Texas and southwestern Louisiana; the Constitution Pipeline in Pennsylvania and upstate New York; the Ridgeline Expansion Pipeline in Tennessee; and the Desert Southwest Expansion Pipeline in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.
James Hiatt, Executive Director of For a Better Bayou, said: “Southwest Louisiana is where many of these fracked-gas and oil pipelines end up, after they cut through wetlands and fishing grounds, all to feed export terminals. The people who live here carry the risks and bear the burden while the profits go elsewhere.”
Anne Marie Garti, founding member and legal counsel for New York-based Stop the Pipeline, said: “The Constitution Pipeline Company has been refusing to comply with the Clean Water Act since 2012. After losing all its court cases, it is now trying to remove fundamental water quality protections with the help of the Trump Administration and its allies in Congress and is blaming New York State, instead of taking responsibility for its own evasiveness.”
Melissa Crytzer Fry, chair of the Lower San Pedro Watershed Alliance in Arizona, said: “The Desert Southwest Express isn’t just a pipeline tunneling beneath the southwest’s last free-flowing river and decimating 50 miles of rare riparian habitat. It paves the way for water-guzzling industries – mining, energy centers and data centers – that are already lining up in an area that simply does not have the water resources to support them.”
Mark Bevelhimer, Board President of Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning, said: “It is discouraging to realize that the push by the current administration for removal and relaxation of federal oversight of pipeline construction will lead to even greater environmental and community impacts. However, through the citizens’ water monitoring program that we undertook during pipeline construction in Morgan County, Tennessee, we demonstrated that even small groups of dedicated individuals can make a difference.”
This report recommends:
- President Trump should rescind his sham “energy emergency” declaration and reserve the use of emergency authority for genuine emergency situations, which do not currently exist. The administration should restore standard environmental review and public participation processes for pipeline projects to ensure that these projects do not harm public health or the environment.
- Given the number and scale of proposed pipeline projects, the Trump Administration should tighten pipeline safety rules and increase inspections, enforcement, and funding for safety research, not the opposite. Congress and the states should step in if the administration fails to act.
- The White House should respect states’ authority under the Clean Water Act and continue allowing states to fully evaluate and, where appropriate, deny certifications for pipeline projects that may violate state water quality standards.
- States and Congress should strengthen protections for wetlands threatened by pipelines and other developments, as the Trump Administration moves to weaken them. Wetlands are critical for flood prevention, clean water, bird and fish populations, and absorbing carbon dioxide to combat climate change.
For a copy of the report, click here. For a spreadsheet with details and links to public records for all 193 pipeline projects, click here.
Media contact: Tom Pelton, Environmental Integrity Project (443) 510-2574 or tpelton@environmentalintegrity.org
The Environmental Integrity Project is America’s environmental watchdog. We hold polluters and governments accountable to protect public health and the environment.
