Following President Trump’s executive order “Declaring a National Energy Emergency,” the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently marked for fast-track review more than 600 applications for permits to destroy wetlands or impact waterways, including 57 in Texas and several in the greater Houston region. Locally, fast-tracked projects include the Sea Port Oil Terminal, which has faced significant community opposition, and the Galveston Bay Bunker Port.
Wetlands play critical roles as filters of water pollution, buffers against coastal flooding, absorbers of carbon dioxide, and cradles of life for fish and bird populations. Section 404 of the Clean Water Act is intended to protect some wetlands by creating a permitting program which accounts for their impacts. Section 404’s permitting process also requires public notice and comment for larger projects. This new “emergency” review could mean reduced or no opportunities for local residents to hear about and object to harmful permits and less environmental scrutiny by regulators and weaker protections for wetlands in permits.
Some of the applications are for oil and gas pipelines through fragile wetlands in Louisiana and Texas, the hotly-contested Enbridge Line 5 oil pipeline under Lake Michigan, transmission lines and methane-fueled power plants, and many other energy projects, according to online records of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
But others appear to have nothing to do with energy. One project marked for “emergency” review is a proposal to destroy 145 acres of wetlands for a gold mine in a national forest in Idaho. Another is a housing subdivision proposed by Chevron on environmentally sensitive lands in southern California.
“The Trump Administration appears to be gearing up to use false claims of an ‘energy emergency’ to fast-track and rubber-stamp federal approvals for projects across the country that will be destructive to America’s wetlands, waterways, and communities,” said David Bookbinder, Director of Law and Policy at the Environmental Integrity Project. “This end-run around the normal environmental review process is not only harmful for our waters, but is illegal under the Corps’ own emergency permitting regulations,” said Bookbinder.
During his first day in office, President Trump signed an executive order, “Declaring a National Energy Emergency.” The order required (among other things) the Army Corps of Engineers to “facilitate the Nation’s energy supply” including by “emergency” permitting under the Clean Water Act for the filling of wetlands and dredging or building in waterways.
As a factual matter, there is no “energy emergency” in the U.S. – with oil and gas production soaring to record highs under the Biden Administration and solar and wind energy generation also growing rapidly, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Nevertheless, Trump’s January 20 order called for accelerated production of crude oil, natural gas, uranium and coal – but not solar or wind power. However, the U.S. ArmyCorps of Engineers online records show that the agency also selected for “emergency” permit review some solar energy projects, such as the Bar C Solar Ranch near Fort Worth, Texas.
A larger number of the pending 688 permit applications listed on the Corps website on February 13 in the “energy emergency” review category were fossil-fuel related projects, including more than 60 permit applications for pipeline projects and gas fired-power plants, as well as numerous electric transmission lines. Of the applications, the largest number – 141 – are in West Virginia, with 60 in Pennsylvania, 57 in Texas, 42 in Florida, 41 in Ohio, among many others in other states.
The Corps of Engineers – which conducts wetlands and waterway impact reviews under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act – reviews permit applications for the discharge of dredge or fill materials into U.S. waters, including many wetlands. For large projects, the Corps requires public notification and the opportunity for public comment. The Corps then issues permits that often include conditions that limit environmental harm.
However, under the “energy emergency” permit review directed by the Trump Administration, it is likely the fast-track process will shortchange environmental reviews for large projects, according to Bookbinder. An emergency review could reduce information about environmental impacts the applicant is required to provide for large projects, or could curtail or even eliminate public notice and thus local communities’ ability to object to a damaging project. Ultimately, the emergency permitting process could restrict or even eliminate the Corps’ review of water pollution impacts, resulting in inadequate environmental protections for large projects.
A few of the projects listed for “emergency” review by the Corps of Engineers under Trump’s “energy emergency” executive order are the following:
- TEXAS: Entergy Texas, Inc., is proposing to build a 754-megawatt gas-fueled power plant called the Legend Power Stationsouth of Beaumont and needs a permit from the Corps because the project would destroy 51 acres of wetlands.Enterprise Products Partners also needs a Corps permit to build a pipeline to the Sea Port Oil Terminal (SPOT) off the coast of Freeport, Texas, impacting about 101 acres of wetlands. Approximately 15 projects are in the Houston area, and nearly 60 are across Texas.
- LOUISIANA: A company called Blue Marlin Offshore Port LLC needs a Clean Water Act permit from the Corps to build a 37-mile crude oil pipeline beneath Sabine Lake to an export terminal southwest of Lake Charles, impacting about 234 acres of fragile wetlands, including near the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge.
- MICHIGAN: The Canadian energy company Enbridge needs a permit from the Corps because it is proposing to build a tunnel and replace a portion of a crude oil pipeline that runs under Lake Michigan near the Straits of Mackinac. The project is strongly opposed by local groups because of the company’s history of oil spills and because Lake Michigan is the source of drinking water for more than 10 million people.
- PENNSYLVANIA: A company called Hanson Aggregates needs a Corps permit because it proposes to fill 4.5 acres of wetlands near the West Branch of the Susquehanna River to expand its sand and gravel mine in Montoursville, west of Scranton.
- CALIFORNIA: In Orange County, Chevron and Pacific Coast Homes need a Corps permit to impact about an acre of wetlands as part of 760 homes development called West Coyote Hills on what was once an oil field. Local environmental groups have been fighting to protect the scenic 500 plus acre site as open space.
- IDAHO: Perpetua Resources Idaho, Inc., needs a Corps permit to impact 145 acres of wetlands and 21 miles of streams in the Payette National Forest to build the “Stibnite Gold Mine Project,” including by digging three open pit mines to extract gold, silver and antimony, as well as roads and worker housing. An older mine operated at the site from 1899 to 1992, but closed 33 years go after polluting the East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River with arsenic and sediment.
Kristen Schlemmer, Senior Legal Director for the Houston-based Bayou City Waterkeeper, said: “After Hurricane Beryl, Hurricane Harvey and countless other unnamed rainstorms, those of us living across greater Houston and along the Texas coast have learned again and again how important wetlands are to us as a natural form of flood protection — and what happens when wetlands are lost. Fast-tracking projects that destroy wetlands will rob our communities of critical wetland protections and place us at greater risk, without any benefits.”
“The Stibnite Gold Project is the equivalent of high-risk, open-heart surgery for the South Fork Salmon River headwaters, and the watershed will be worse off as a result, not better,” said John Robison, Idaho Conservation League’s public lands and wildlife director.
Matt Rota, Senior Policy Director for the Louisiana-based Healthy Gulf, said: “The Trump Administration’s push for an ‘emergency’ review of wetlands destruction permits is a blatant attempt to sidestep environmental laws and fast-track fossil fuel projects at the expense of our wetlands and communities. Rushing permits like the Blue Marlin Offshore Port pipeline under a manufactured ‘emergency’ undermines public oversight and threatens the Gulf Coast region’s vital wetland ecosystems.”
For a list of the Army Corps of Engineering permit applications marked by the Trump Administration for “energy emergency” review, click here. Read news coverage of this issue:
Trump Order Fast-Tracks Projects That Would Damage Wetlands, Environmental Groups Say (Inside Climate News)
Trump Administration Moves to Fast-Track Hundreds of Fossil Fuel Projects (NY Times)
Outrage as Trump cites ‘emergency’ to fast-track fossil fuel projects (Guardian)
US Oil, Gold Projects Are Among Hundreds Up for Trump Fast-Track Review (Bloomberg)
Army Corps picks energy projects for quick permits (Politico)
Trump administration identifies hundreds of energy projects that could be fast-tracked (The Hill)
Team Trump Invents Fake “Emergency” to Sidestep Environmental Laws (Mother Jones)
Trump administration moves to speed up fossil fuel projects with emergency permit (Environmental Health News)