A 274-mile-long pipeline system called the Rio Bravo is being built across South Texas, a $2.2 billion project – one of the biggest in the country – to transport 4.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day to a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal on the Gulf of Mexico near Brownsville, Texas.

On the other side of the state, in East Texas, a 91-mile long natural gas pipeline called the CP Express is underway, cutting through 1,046 acres of wetlands as it is built from north of Beaumont to an LNG terminal in Cameron, Louisiana.

These are just two of 151 gas pipelines planned or under construction across the country as part of the largest boom in U.S. gas pipeline construction in two decades, including 42 projects in whole or part in Texas, spanning 3,912 miles.

But as this wave of new pipelines is being built near homes and through waterways, the Trump Administration is simultaneously cutting enforcement of pipeline safety rules and limiting environmental reviews and safety regulations designed to prevent these pipelines from exploding, leaking or polluting, according to a report by the Environmental Integrity Project, “Tunnel Vision: Trumped Up Energy Emergency Accelerates Pipeline Boom.”

“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,” said Jen Duggan, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project.

Texas, a hub for fossil fuel extraction and refining, is the state with by far the most pipeline projects. Seven of the 10 largest gas pipelines, by capacity, are proposed in Texas. These include the Eiger Express Pipeline, stretching across 610 miles from the Permian Basin in West Texas to the Houston area.

Many of the new gas pipelines, including the Trident and Mustang Express pipelines, both north and east of Houston, are designed to transport additional gas fracked from the Permian shale formation in West Texas to Gulf Coast LNG export terminals and other customers.

Other pipelines are built to feed the ravenous energy appetite of the data center industry. At least 98 gas-fired power plants dedicated to data centers are planned across the country, 39 of them in Texas.

To supply gas for data center power plants in the Phoenix area, a 527-mile gas pipeline called the Desert Southwest Expansion would stretch from West Texas across New Mexico and Arizona, threatening ecologically sensitive land, according to the EIP report.

“This industrial pipeline threatens habitat for some of the most vulnerable wildlife in the country,” said Graham Rex, an attorney at the Tucson-headquartered Center for Biological Diversity. “The American Southwest is already buckling under the pressure of climate change, unprecedented drought and the boom in data center construction. A massive new fossil fuel pipeline is the last thing the region needs.”

Four of the five largest oil pipeline projects, by capacity, proposed in the U.S. are proposed in whole or in part in Texas, according to the EIP report. These include the largest, the Blue Marlin Offshore Port pipeline southeast of Port Arthur, Texas, which would transport two million barrels of oil per day to an export terminal in the Gulf of Mexico.

Jeff Ballard, chief executive officer of Sentinel Midstream, is the developer of the Texas GulfLink Pipeline, which would carry about a million barrels of oil a day south of Houston to an offshore oil terminal in the Gulf of Mexico. He said in a statement in May that the Texas GulfLink project “is about unlocking the full potential of American energy” and that increased U.S. oil exports are important in a world with an “increasingly uncertain energy landscape.” Several of the largest proposed oil and gas pipelines would be built to supply export terminals, according to the EIP report. 

Nationally, the 151 gas pipeline projects 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. 

Developers plan to bring almost 41 billion cubic feet per day of new natural gas pipeline capacity online in the U.S. by the end of 2027, with more than three fourths of that from projects planned in Texas and Louisiana, according to public records and company announcements analyzed for the EIP report.  

To accelerate this pipeline buildout, the Trump Administration has declared – without factual basis – an “energy emergency” to speed up permit approvals, reduce the scope and duration of environmental studies and reviews, and limit public participation in permitting.

The administration is also weakening pipeline safety rules and offering pipeline operators waivers from the enforcement of safety violations.

In a Jan. 12 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.

In 2025, PHMSA initiated the fewest annual number of enforcement cases on record (112), which was about half the annual average of 217 over the previous two decades.

The administration has also weakened federal safety regulations that require pipeline companies to conduct pipeline pressure tests and reduce the operating pressure of pipelines as they pass through densely-populated areas, to reduce the risk of explosions.

Many gas pipelines operate safely, but failures can be catastrophic and deadly – so cutting back on safety rules and enforcement can be risky, according to the EIP report.

For example, on February third of this year, a 28-mile pipeline providing natural gas to the Delfin LNG export terminal in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, exploded, releasing a 50 foot plume of flame, leaving a crater, and injuring one person, while while a nearby high school was forced to take emergency measures and shelter in place.

One of the worst disasters in recent history happened in September 2010, when a natural gas transmission line ruptured and exploded in San Bruno, California, killing eight people, injuring dozens, and destroying 38 homes while damaging another 70.

In addition to reducing pipeline safety enforcement, the Trump Administration – as part of its effort to accelerate energy projects – is reducing opportunities for public comment on wetlands destruction permits and severely restricting which wetlands are protected under the Clean Water Act.

In three cases examined in EIP’s report, pipeline projects in Louisiana and Texas were granted public comment periods of two weeks or less for wetlands permit applications instead of the normal 30 days.

For example, the Army Corps of Engineers allowed the public only 10 days to comment on the Sabine Crossing Pipeline, a proposed 55-mile-long natural gas pipeline expected to impact more than 500 acres of wetlands along its path from Liberty, Texas, to the Sabine Pass LNG terminal in Cameron Parish, Louisiana.

The administration is also weakening and narrowing protections for endangered species. The Army Corps district along the Texas Gulf Coast has said it plans to indefinitely postpone Endangered Species Act consultations with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service that evaluate whether a pipeline or other major construction project would harm endangered species.

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 Defense Production Act 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. 

In New York, the Energy Department announced on October 19 it will allocate up to $42 million in Defense Production Act funding to revive the hotly-protested Constitution Pipeline that travels 125 miles through Pennsylvania toward the Albany area. New York State has denied a certification for this project under the Clean Water Act because of concerns it could pollute waterways. 

In justifying this move, U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said that despite America having an abundant supply of natural gas, “tens of millions of Americans have limited access to this reliable energy source due to a lack of pipeline infrastructure.”

But the authors of the EIP report argue major pipeline projects that pose potential threats to public safety and clean water should not be fast-tracked, and should instead be scrutinized carefully and thoroughly, with full transparency and public hearings.

“The safety and quality of life of the American people must come first, before the profits of multinational energy companies,” state the authors. 

Lead photo: Lengths of pipe stacked near the CP2 LNG terminal in Southwest Louisiana. Photo by Tom Pelton / Environmental Integrity Project.