The Trump administration slashed pipeline safety enforcement in 2025, bringing about half the average number of cases as in previous years.
The change reduces pressure on an industry that includes some of President Donald Trump’s biggest financial supporters and sits at the center of his “energy dominance” agenda. It’s also part of a broader retreat across the federal government from policing companies’ environmental, safety and financial activities.
“In an administration with a president who has emphasized, as this one has, that he thinks there is too much regulation, reducing enforcement activity is an easy and unreviewable way to lessen immediate regulatory burdens,” said Cary Coglianese, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania who heads the Penn Program on Regulation.
But less enforcement by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration risks eroding support for the many pipelines and natural gas export facilities Trump wants to see built — if people who live near them don’t think regulations will keep them safe from explosions and other dangers.
PHMSA initiated 111 enforcement cases in 2025, according to data on its website. That’s 44 percent below 2024 numbers and about half the average from prior years — 217.
It levied 11 fines last year, far fewer than the average of 45. But a nearly $10 million fine levied New Year’s Eve against Panther Operating Co. for a 2023 oil spill off the Louisiana coast pushed the total dollar number for fines sought in 2025 to a record $14 million. That’s more than double the prior year average of $5.7 million.
PHMSA spokesperson Emily Wong said safety remains a top priority for Trump and his administration.
“Everything PHMSA does — from encouraging innovation to going after bad actors — is to ensure the American people can safely and affordably access the energy they need, to fuel their cars and power their homes,” Wong said in an emailed statement. “To suggest otherwise is disingenuous and ignores PHMSA’s thorough and transparent process.”
She added that the proposed fine levy against Panther last month was the largest civil penalty in PHMSA’s history.
Safety advocates and congressional Democrats have criticized Trump’s handling of pipeline safety regulation and enforcement, saying the administration is gutting important rules and cutting enforcement of the rules that remain.
Pipeline industry leaders acknowledged the decrease in numbers, but they say PHMSA is changing priorities rather than reducing enforcement. In July, PHMSA released a memo on enforcement priorities, putting “incidents and accidents” at the top.
The agency is focusing on compliance, oversight and realignment with new, data-driven priorities, said Amy Andryszak, CEO of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America.
“This approach continues to drive strong safety performance and proactive risk management throughout the industry,” Andryszak said in an emailed statement.
The focus will serve the public well, said Andy Black, president and CEO of the Liquid Energy Pipeline Association.
“PHMSA’s stated approach of spending less time writing proverbial parking tickets and more of its resources on cases that make a real difference to people and the environment benefits both pipeline and public safety,” Black said in a statement.
Mary Beth Gilani, a spokesperson for the American Petroleum Institute, said companies are fully committed to obeying safety rules “regardless of who is in office.”
PHMSA enforcement, in terms of initiating new cases, all but stopped in the first few months of the Trump administration. At the time, agency officials said the decline was not a long-term trend.
The numbers bounced back up in May, and Wong said agency enforcement officials had been “hard at work” updating PHMSA’s enforcement process to bolster due process protections for companies accused of violating PHMSA’s minimum standards.
Deputy PHMSA Administrator Ben Kochman, then the acting head of the agency, said in a news release last June that the changes reflected better procedural protections.
The agency is “ensuring due process and putting safety front and center,” Kochman said. He said it reflected a shift after “four years of the Biden Administration’s misguided attempts to turn PHMSA into an environmental regulator.”
‘Risk of getting hit’
PHMSA does oversee certain environmental regulations, handling spills of oil and other liquids that primarily damage the environment. Under former President Joe Biden, it launched a crackdown on emissions from natural gas pipelines that was part of Biden’s climate agenda. The crackdown was ordered by Congress in 2020 as part of a large legislative package signed by Trump.
The early decrease in enforcement this year led Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) to criticize the agency for backing off during a July confirmation hearing for Paul Roberti, who was nominated to run the agency. Roberti, who was later confirmed, said he was committed to enforcement.
Other agencies have also cut back on corporate enforcement since Trump returned to office. In its early days, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency pushed thousands of regulators out of federal employment. One of the hardest-hit agencies was the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The effort purged at least 788 people from federal employment at PHMSA’s parent, the Department of Transportation, which equals about 1.4 percent of the department’s previous workforce. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said none of the departing employees was critical to safety.
But there are no official numbers on how many people left PHMSA, which had about 650 employees before Trump returned to office. And there’s no public data on whether all safety-critical employees have remained.
Trump has also issued orders directing energy and environmental agencies to “sunset” certain regulations and one aimed at eliminating “anti-competitive regulations,” as well as a memo directing agencies to repeal existing rules that don’t align with a series of recent Supreme Court decisions.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment about whether the administration is trying to reduce federal enforcement of consumer and safety regulations.
The Department of Transportation also has proposed allowing companies to petition the department’s top lawyer with complaints about enforcement personnel. Violations could lead to an employee being removed from the case or administrative discipline. Critics have said the policy is intended to intimidate enforcement personnel. DOT did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While limiting enforcement might be one of the easier ways for a president to reduce regulation, Coglianese said it can be one of the least permanent, because subsequent administrations can levy fines years later. The statute of limitations for most regulatory violations extends past a president’s four-year term.
“So any firm that fails to comply today runs the risk of getting hit with an enforcement action if a new president takes office in 2029,” Coglianese said.
The oil and gas industry contributed about $26 million to Trump’s campaign organizations for the 2024 presidential election, according to the campaign finance site Opensecrets.org, ranking it behind only six other industries.
Many of the industry’s contributions tie back to a major pipeline company, Dallas-based Energy Transfer. The company’s executive chair, Kelcy Warren, along with a company he controls, gave Trump $12.5 million before the election. Since then, Warren and Energy Transfer have combined to give him a further $25 million.
Energy Transfer, which did not respond to a request for comment, has demonstrated displeasure with federal enforcement by PHMSA and other agencies.
Shortly after Trump took office, the company sued to upend the agency’s enforcement process. It challenged the constitutionality of a $2.5 million fine the company issued after an accident that killed a pipeline worker. The company later dropped that suit, switching its constitutional challenge to the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
It is still challenging the $2.5 million fine in federal district court, alleging “improprieties” in PHMSA’s investigative process. And it is challenging a $400,000 PHMSA fine before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stemming from an explosion in Florida in 2020 on a 61-year-old natural gas line.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the number of fatalities tied to an accident that led to a proposed $2.5 million fine.
