USA – TEXAS Trends and Developments Contributed by: Gerald J. Pels, Gerald D. Higdon, James Beers, Jr., Elizabeth Corey and Brett A. Miller, Troutman Pepper Locke
Enforcement in the Trump Era There has been a clear shift in EPA enforcement activities during the first months of the sec- ond Trump administration. For example, while the Biden administration implemented certain enforcement initiatives to target oil and gas methane emissions, the Trump administration has already eliminated those initiatives and indi - cated that the EPA will no longer incorporate EJ considerations into its enforcement decisions. The EPA’s national enforcement and compliance initiatives (NECI) will be aligned with the priorities set forth in the administration’s EOs and other EPA pronouncements. With higher levels of staffing, the EPA during the Biden administration increased the number of inspections and information requests, result- ing in more enforcement orders with higher civil penalty amounts for GHG-related Clean Air Act cases. Biden’s flyover initiative in the Permian Basin of Texas resulted in a significant number of enforcement orders targeting the oil and gas industry between 2019 and 2024. Perhaps the clearest indication thus far of the shift in the enforcement approach can be seen by the fact that the Department of Justice (DOJ) does not appear to have instituted any significant new civil environmental enforcement actions since inauguration. Furthermore, in March 2025, the DOJ dropped a contentious Clean Air Act lawsuit against a chemical company on the eve of trial, citing “President Trump’s Mandate to End Radical DEI Programs”. At the same time, the DOJ has been focusing its litigation resources on bringing suit to prospectively challenge states’ ability to seek climate-related damages from oil and gas com- panies. Given the changes in priorities and the reduced staffing and funding at the EPA, it is reasonable to expect these federal enforcement
IRA in its recently promulgated budget bill, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”. The One Big Beau- tiful Bill proposes to dismantle many incentives for renewable development contained in the IRA. It is possible that representatives concluded that elimination of the IRA’s WEC provisions do not fit within the framework of the budgeting bill. Environmental justice (EJ) Pursuant to EO 14173, the administration revoked prior EOs that were the basis for the EPA’s EJ Program, and the EPA has removed from its website definitions and references to EJ. As a result, EPA enforcement and permit- ting decisions will no longer take into consid- eration the demographic make-up of impacted communities. EPA deregulatory agenda In March 2025, the EPA announced that it will pursue a regulatory roll-back of “trillions in regu- latory costs and hidden ‘taxes’ on US citizens”. Programmes under review that are affecting the energy industry include the following: • Quad Ob/Oc, affecting the upstream and midstream industries; • power plant regulations, including Clean Power Plan 2.0; • the GHGRP; • waste water regulation of the oil and gas industry; • roll-back of certain risk management plan requirements; • re-evaluation of the PM 2.5 standard; • consideration of the SCC; • reconsideration of certain National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NES-
HAPs) affecting the energy sector; • streamlining NSR permitting; and • many others.
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