The government is shut down but the permits keep flowing
As of October 9th, millions of federal workers are still sitting at home, furloughed. Critical environmental protections are on pause and disaster response systems are barely functioning. But fossil fuel drilling permits? Those are still getting processed and approved just fine!
Trump and congressional Republicans have shut down the government, and if you look at what stays open versus what gets closed, it tells you everything you need to know about their priorities. Interior Department workers processing oil and gas permits are deemed essential, meanwhile 64% of National Park Service staff are furloughed, and nearly 90% of EPA employees have been sent home.
Since taking office, this administration has been methodically dismantling our environmental safeguards. Before this shutdown even started, Trump’s budget office directed agencies to develop plans for firing employees during the funding lapse. In addition to firing thousands of public servants, they’ve also gutted clean air and water protections, proposed rolling back power plant emissions rules, and slashed clean energy programs. The EPA had already lost massive numbers of staff before the shutdown made things exponentially worse.
Fewer staff means fewer inspections, fewer rules means less accountability, and less accountability means bigger profits for corporate polluters. You can’t get caught violating clean air standards if there’s no one there to inspect your facility. You can’t face penalties for oil spills if the enforcement staff are furloughed. You can’t be held liable for climate damages if the agencies collecting emissions data are shut down.
The White House is literally offering “concierge, white glove service“ to fossil fuel companies. Brittany Kelm, a senior policy adviser for Trump’s National Energy Dominance Council, said exactly that on a podcast in August. She described how her team connects oil and gas companies directly with “the politicals” at federal agencies, helping them get permits “unstuck” and fast-tracked. She bragged about getting one company approval in four days for what used to take 45 days. Kelm previously worked for Shell and Valero Energy.
This white glove service makes more sense when you see who’s actually running these agencies. A new report from Public Citizen and the Revolving Door Project found that out of 111 nominees and appointees to key environmental and energy positions, 43 have direct ties to the fossil fuel industry.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright is the founder and former CEO of Liberty Energy, a fracking company. His nominee to run the DOE’s renewable energy office is Audrey Robertson, another fracking executive with no apparent experience in alternative energy. The head of the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation is Aaron Szabo, a former lobbyist whose clients included the American Petroleum Institute.
So when the shutdown furloughs environmental staff but keeps fossil fuel permits flowing, it’s because the people making those decisions used to cash checks from oil companies.
This is how the oligarchy works. It breaks our government so corporations like Big Oil can run wild. The same fossil fuel companies that spent decades blocking climate action are watching the Trump administration dismantle the agencies that could hold them accountable. Meanwhile, renewable energy projects are frozen, with solar and wind permits have been held up since July. The Energy Department just canceled $7.6 billion in clean energy funding, and the EPA is trying to claw back another $27 billion.
Government agency websites are being weaponized with partisan messages blaming “Radical Left Democrats” for the shutdown. The U.S. Forest Service, the Department of State, and the Small Business Administration are all running these attacks on official government sites. Staff at the Department of Education and SBA were told to insert political messages into their out-of-office email replies.
Trump is also threatening to deny backpay to 750,000 furloughed workers, which would break a 2019 law that guarantees it and deviate from every previous shutdown. The White House budget office, run by Project 2025 architect Russell Vought, claims the law doesn’t actually guarantee backpay and that Congress would need to approve it. So, Republicans will rubber-stamp tax breaks and handouts for billionaire polluter CEOs, but won’t work with Democrats to keep essential services running for working families.
While federal workers face the prospect of no paychecks, the National Flood Insurance Program has completely lapsed during peak hurricane season. NOAA’s research vessels are heading back to port and their laboratories are going dark. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement are shut down, so there’s nobody doing safety inspections on offshore oil rigs right now. The Coast Guard is still out there conducting rescues without pay and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has paused protections for endangered marine species.
A shutdown locks in this status quo and makes it even worse. When the people running environmental agencies used to run the companies they’re supposed to regulate, and when those same people decide which government functions are “essential” during a shutdown, protecting fossil fuel profits becomes essential and protecting our public lands, air, and water does not.
That’s why we must join together and demand that polluters are held accountable. If the federal government won’t do it, then states will. Join us to Make Polluters Pay!