The AI industry wants to build at least 98 gas-fired power plants to feed its datacenters, and that means almost 200 new pipeline projects spanning 17,000 miles. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has formally promised not to enforce pipeline safety rules against companies that break them. Nothing says innovation like a gas explosion with no paperwork.
The Biggest Pipeline Boom in Decades
A new review of federal records by the Environmental Integrity Project, first reported by The Guardian, counted almost 200 pipeline projects either proposed or already in the works. Laid end to end, they would stretch 17,000 miles. If every one gets finished, the system would carry about 40% more natural gas per day than it does now.
The demand is coming from two places. One is the datacenter gold rush, with at least 98 gas-fired power plants proposed to keep the chatbots fed. The other is export demand for American natural gas, fueled by the wars in Ukraine and Iran. War and autocomplete, working together to make your neighborhood more flammable.
The projects would cross 42 states. About 42 of them are in or cross Texas, 27 are in Louisiana, and nine each are in Pennsylvania and Illinois. "This is the largest boom in a couple decades," said Alexandra Shaykevich, research manager at the Environmental Integrity Project, "and it coincides with all this deregulation."
A Memo Promising Not to Enforce the Law
Here's the part that should make your eye twitch. In January, the Trump administration issued a memo stating that it would "refrain from taking any enforcement action" against companies that violated regulations from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
Read that again. The agency whose entire job is making sure gas pipelines don't blow up put out a written statement saying it won't punish people who ignore the rules. That's not deregulation. That's a sign on the door reading "Back in 4 years, do whatever you want."
The enforcement numbers were already collapsing. By 2025 the administration had cut the average number of enforcement actions in half, down to just 117.
Higher Pressure, Fewer Tests, Denser Neighborhoods
The report also alleges the administration is letting companies increase the pressure inside pipelines running through densely populated areas. It's also letting them run fewer pressure tests. So the pipes get pushed harder, and we check them less often.
This is a weird time to be relaxed about it. The US already records about 1.7 pipeline accidents, spills, fires or explosions every single day. That's the baseline, before adding 17,000 miles of new line and a 40% jump in volume.
And the consequences aren't abstract. In March 2023, a cracked gas pipeline in West Reading, Pennsylvania caused an explosion at a chocolate factory that killed seven workers and injured 10 others. Last month, two workers died when a pipeline exploded in New Mexico. Shaykevich is fair about it: pipelines usually operate safely. The problem is what happens when they don't, and who's standing next to them.
Emergency Powers for a Non-Emergency
More than 25% of the projects have asked for an expedited environmental review, and the administration is handing them out using legally dubious tools, like invoking an "energy emergency." The result, per the report, is faster permits, narrower environmental studies, and less room for the public to say anything about it.
Then there's the Defense Production Act, a law meant for wartime industrial mobilization, now being used to override states that said no. In March, the administration jump-started the Santa Ynez oil pipeline in Santa Barbara, California. The state shut that line down in 2015 after a spill that harmed about 150 miles of coastline. California said no. Washington said "lol."
The same law is being used to try to force through the 125-mile Constitution pipeline from Pennsylvania to upstate New York, a project New York has opposed. So much for states' rights, a principle conservatives apparently only believe in when a state wants to do something worse.
Wetlands Are Next on the Menu
At least 81 of the projects are expected to damage more than 19,000 acres of federally protected wetlands. The timing is a gift to the industry, because the administration is simultaneously trying to strip 94% of federal wetland protections.
If you're wondering how that works, it's simple. First you remove the rule against damaging the wetland. Then the pipeline damages the wetland. Everything is technically legal, which is the cleverest thing about it.
In southwest Louisiana, where export terminals crowd the Mississippi River, existing pipelines have already cut through sensitive wetlands and fishing grounds. "The people who live here carry the risks and bear the burden while the profits go elsewhere," said James Hiatt, executive director of For a Better Bayou. He's describing Louisiana, but he could be describing the whole business model.
The Dingo Take
Who exactly is this build-out for? Not the workers at the chocolate factory in West Reading. Not the fishing communities in Louisiana, or the people in Santa Barbara who already watched 150 miles of coastline get coated once. It's for datacenters and export terminals, and for the companies that own the pipes and just got a government memo telling them nobody's checking.
The cruelty here is how deliberate the machinery is. Declare an emergency that isn't one. Use a wartime production law to steamroll states. Cut enforcement in half, then promise to stop enforcing altogether. Gut the wetlands rules right before the projects that would wreck the wetlands. Each move is boring on its own, and together they add up to a country where the safety system exists on paper and nowhere else.
The AI boom was sold as the future. Turns out it runs on 1.7 pipeline accidents a day and a regulator that's agreed to look the other way. Pipelines usually don't explode. Usually. That's the whole bet, and it's not the oil executives who'll be standing next to the pipe when it loses.
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