EPA Oil and Gas Enforcement Drops in New Mexico Under Trump

Capital & Main examined 170 entries tied to oil and gas companies filed on the EPA’s enforcement and compliance webpage for New Mexico. Those entries include inspection reports, information requests and enforcement documents dating back to 2012.

Oil and gas-related enforcement entries bounced around in the single digits before peaking in the first two years of the administration of President Joe Biden: 26 entries for 2021 and 24 for 2022. Ten entries were listed for 2025, most in the opening months of the Trump administration before the agency announced a 23% reduction in its workforce. Eight were recorded in 2026 through Nov. 4.

Cliff Villa, a professor of law at the University of New Mexico School of Law, said he’s noticed a change at the agency.

“EPA has lost a lot of people, including a lot of institutional knowledge,” Villa said. “That’s not easy to replace.” Before joining the university, Villa worked for more than 20 years as an EPA attorney under both Democratic and Republican administrations.

Oil and gas revenues have swelled New Mexico’s coffers to record levels in recent years. At the same time, such operations have directly and indirectly generated record amounts of hard-to-dispose-of oilfield wastewater, raised the specter of $1.6 billion in cleanup costs for abandoned wells and fouled the air in the oilfields. That last issue — cleaning New Mexico’s air — has been the EPA’s main goal in New Mexico in recent years, and the need for help is reflected in how oilfield pollution cases can tie up state resources for years.

Capital & Main sent questions about the declining numbers of enforcement and compliance documents to the EPA’s regional office in Dallas, which oversees New Mexico operations. They were answered by Michael Bastasch, deputy director for regional media and programs in the EPA’s Washington headquarters. He called questions about declining numbers “a baseless narrative.

“EPA enforcement has not declined,” he said.

Bastasch put the responsibility for policing the oil and gas industry on New Mexico: “New Mexico has delegated authority under the Clean Air Act, which means they take the lead on air quality enforcement within their borders.”

Historically, air quality issues have been the primary cause for EPA oil and gas investigations in New Mexico, and the New Mexico Environment Department does have an agreement — known as a State Implementation Plan — that allows it to take the lead on federal Clean Air Act investigations. Those investigations are generally conducted in partnership with the EPA, not in lieu of the EPA.

James Kenney, the New Mexico Environment Department secretary, worked for years at the EPA before beginning his state job under Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. In a 2022 interview with Capital & Main, Kenney said the EPA wasn’t allowed in New Mexico under the previous governor, Republican Susana Martinez, and “the first thing we did is invite EPA in.”

The working relationship has changed since then.

“Notably, [the Environment Department] has seen a decrease in joint enforcement actions,” said Drew Goretzka, director of communications at the New Mexico Environment Department. He said that past work took the form of joint inspections, flyovers using optical gas imaging and complicated enforcement actions — areas in which the EPA is able to bring its much larger workforce and money to bear.

For example, in 2019 and 2020, the EPA conducted airborne inspections of New Mexico’s oilfields on behalf of the state. The flights uncovered dozens of leaking facilities, though it resulted in only slow-rolling enforcement actions against a few of the polluting companies.

Asked if flights might return in the future, Bastasch said, “EPA does not comment on whether inspections and compliance monitoring activities will occur.”

Kyle Tisdel, senior attorney and climate and energy program director at the Western Environmental Law Center, said the fallout of decreasing EPA enforcement further burdens state agencies “both in identifying the wells and operators chronically violating emissions standards, and then prosecuting those violations and holding individual operators responsible.”

Goretzka also said that the EPA’s “retreat” adds further compliance and enforcement costs to the state.

“EPA’s lack of enforcement in the Permian Basin makes it more difficult to protect New Mexicans’ air quality,” he said.

Recent studies linked oil and gas operations to radioactive airborne plumes and other air pollution in the Permian Basin, the nation’s largest oil field. Asked about the findings, Bastasch dismissed work that was “based on studies performed on data from the Biden Administration that purport to show that air pollution in New Mexico comes from New Mexico.”

Bastasch’s responses exhibited a recurring anti-Biden administration theme, with answers that regularly name-checked the former president.

When asked if the reductions reflect the Trump administration’s plan to “unleash American energy,” he said, “Enforcement will be consistent with the law and the rule of law, unlike during the Biden Administration.”

Bastasch did not respond when asked how or when the Biden administration’s actions were inconsistent with the law.

While oil and gas enforcement numbers have dropped, the EPA has not been idle in other areas in New Mexico. In May, the agency issued around 60 warnings to small water co-ops across the state for failing to file paperwork identifying the kinds of pipes in their systems, a requirement under the Safe Water Drinking Act.

Bastasch said that the EPA concluded more than 2,300 civil enforcement cases between Jan. 20, 2025, and Jan. 19, 2026, “a ten year high — over 400 cases more than in the final year of the Biden Administration.” But those are national figures and not specific to New Mexico.

The EPA began promoting the numbers in March. Since then, outside watchdogs have called the numbers misleading — primarily because the EPA under Trump is taking credit for work done during the Biden administration.

For example, in early September, the EPA issued Compliance Agreements and Final Orders against two of New Mexico’s top-10 oil and gas producers: Chevron USA Inc. for $440,341 and Permian Resources Operating LLC for $691,253. The cases reflect violations found during on-site inspections in 2024 during the Biden administration.

“These fines are not surprising, nor is the fact that the violations were identified by the Biden administration,” said Tisdel, the Western Environmental Law Center lawyer.

He added that state and federal agencies rely on self-reporting by oil and gas companies for day-to-day monitoring. But, “as these fines indicate, there can be substantial gaps between what is reported by industry and the emission violations found here,” he said.

The EPA has worked in New Mexico this year, too. The agency entered into expedited settlement agreements with Occidental Permian Ltd. at its North Hobbs Plant and with Enterprise Products Partners LP at its Dark Horse Treating Facility for not filing required risk management plans on time. Those plans, updated every five years, are used to alert first responders and nearby residents to possible environmental threats.

Settlement agreements are a quick way for companies to resolve violations by paying a fine and promising to fix the underlying problem. According to the agreement documents, Occidental Permian filed its plan a week late in May and paid a $1,600 fine. Enterprise Products Partners filed roughly three weeks late in June and paid a $2,000 fine.

What comes next for the EPA and New Mexico is an open question.

“It will be great again,” predicted Villa, the University of New Mexico professor. “In the meantime, there are many other opportunities for enforcement, including states and tribes and local governments and non-governmental organizations.”

Villa also highlighted provisions in federal statutes allowing citizen lawsuits where people and organizations can sue companies or the federal government for violating air and water regulations.

In 2022, the conservation group WildEarth Guardians sued OXY USA and OXY USA WTP LP — both subsidiaries of Occidental Petroleum Corp. — over violations of the Clean Air Act. The group said the suit resulted in millions of dollars’ worth of facility upgrades, a $500,000 civil penalty and another $500,000 penalty “to support air quality and public health improvement projects in southeast New Mexico” that eventually resulted in a new mobile air monitoring station for the New Mexico Environment Department.

The dramatic changes at the EPA “won’t simply be reversed by a future administration,” Tisdel cautioned. “But my sense is that out of the ruins of this moment, there will be opportunity … to imagine a future and regulatory and enforcement framework that is commensurate to the mounting crises we face.”

“It does create opportunities, though, for students who are in school today, including my own students,” Villa said. “They will have opportunities to be a part of a rebuilding of the federal government. And I see my job right now as a teacher as helping prepare them for that rebuilding.”