President Donald Trump’s choice to be the top federal pipeline regulator Wednesday committed to accountability for oil and gas companies after Democrats accused the agency he wants to lead of backing off enforcement.
Paul Roberti, nominated to be administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, said in his confirmation hearing that ensuring safety fits with Trump’s drive to expand fossil fuel production.
“To realize the president’s vision for unleashing American energy, we must instill great confidence that our transportation systems are safe,” he said.
PHMSA has initiated fewer enforcement actions in the first six months of 2025 (46 cases) than any other year in the agency’s 20-year history, according to an analysis of PHMSA data. The next lowest was 58 in 2014.
That was a key part of criticism from Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, who said enforcement was declining at PHMSA and other parts of the Department of Transportation.
“PHMSA has opened the fewest pipeline enforcement cases during the first six months of this administration than any other administration over the past two decades,” Cantwell said, adding that she has been “sounding the alarm.”
Cantwell said the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have also seen a decline in enforcement. She said DOT has a new rule “basically saying that you can retaliate against the inspectors in your agencies.”
The department did not immediately return a request for comment on a new enforcement memo. The Washington Post reported that the March 11 document from acting general counsel Gregory Cote would allow department attorneys to recommend discipline against enforcement officials suspected of breaking the department’s rules.
Roberti and the other two nominees — Derek Barrs for FMCSA and Jonathan Morrison for NHTSA — told Cantwell they would not retaliate against safety and enforcement staff.
“The inspection enforcement teams know how important I think what they do is to the mission of safety,” said Roberti, who served as PHMSA’s top attorney during Trump’s first term.
Roberti himself received little criticism, and Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) said he expected the nominee to be confirmed. If that happens, the agency would get its first Senate-confirmed leader in about four years. President Joe Biden did not nominate anyone to be PHMSA administrator during his single term.
Roberti currently works as a managing director for the consulting firm Ernst & Young. He was a member of the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission from 2009 to 2016 and before that served as an assistant attorney general in the state.
PHMSA enforcement officials initiated only five cases between Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, as POLITICO’s E&E News first reported. None were filed in March, the first time in the agency’s 20-year history it went a month without filing an enforcement action.
That has risen in subsequent months, but it still lags other years. The decline raised questions about how Trump officials would handle an industry that has been a top financial supporter of the president’s political efforts.
PHMSA officials have said such fears are unwarranted and that enforcement slowed because administration officials were updating the enforcement process to bolster due process protections for accused companies.
During Trump’s first term, the agency sought an average of about $4.5 million in fines each year, a drop from about $6 million in the Obama administration.
Enforcement shot upward during the Biden administration, with safety violations topping $10 million for the first time in 2021. Fines sought averaged $11.6 million until 2024, when they dropped to about $5.2 million.
This story also appears in Energywire.
