The Trump administration is angling to use a bedrock water law to build more natural gas pipelines across the United States.

It’s a major potential pivot for the half-century-old Clean Water Act, a law prized by environmentalists and grassroots groups and often used to protest pipelines. The statute protects bodies of water from pollution, including from fossil fuel development.

But in a flurry of executive orders last week, President Donald Trump declared a national energy emergency, directing the Army Corps of Engineers to use its emergency authority under the law to speed up the construction of pipelines, which cover long distances and often cross waterways. That came as part of a broader call for agencies to propose ways to speed up fossil fuel infrastructure and development.

Environmentalists say Trump is overstepping. Jon Devine, who leads the federal water policy team at the Natural Resources Defense Council, called the Army Corps directive “poorly thought out.”

“It seems to imply that the Army Corps may have some supposed emergency authority to permit oil and gas pipelines and other fossil fuel projects that would harm water bodies,” he said. “But no such authority exists.”

The law requires the Army Corps to sign off on projects that discharge waste into U.S. bodies of water like rivers and wetlands. Until now, the corps’ emergency authorities have been used in targeted scenarios that don’t generate big public fights, according to experts.

The emergency authorities the Army Corps uses to comply with the Clean Water Act are sweeping. They include situations that “would result in an unacceptable hazard to life, a significant loss of property, or an immediate, unforeseen, and significant economic hardship if corrective action requiring a permit is not undertaken within a time period less than the normal time.”

A new report from the Government Accountability Office shows the corps has used its authority to expedite thousands of permits, including for pipelines.

The White House and the Army Corps didn’t comment for this story. But natural gas supporters say Trump is right to try to speed up pipeline construction amid predictions that the country will see huge spikes in energy demand.

Electricity demand is set to balloon roughly 3 percent a year for the remainder of this decade, according to a recent analysis from the firm Grid Strategies. That’s driven by artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency and the broad electrification of vehicles, home heating and other parts of the economy.

“Natural gas pipelines have to be built more quickly and reach more communities faster to keep the electricity grid up and running in this country,” former Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), who lobbies for Van Ness Feldman and works with the gas-supporting group Natural Allies for Clean Energy, said in an interview.

“I happen to agree with [Trump] on that,” she said. “It should be done for the benefit of the American people, not necessarily the benefit of the oil and gas companies.”

Trump’s has directed federal agencies to take numerous steps to ease permitting for gas pipelines and other energy infrastructure. He’s tasking the Council on Environmental Quality with an overhaul of broad regulations for environmental reviews of new projects, as well as directing EPA to review its permitting, which includes Clean Water Act requirements.

Trump’s directive to the corps tells the agency to use the set of emergency authorities for the Clean Water Act to “the fullest extent possible” to speed up construction of pipelines, which transport gas from high producing areas like Appalachia and the Permian Basin, to population centers or export facilities. Gas is used for electricity and cooking in tens of millions of homes nationwide.

Aggressive use of the Army Corps’ emergency authorities would likely spur litigation.

“The Clean Water Act provides for proper and rigorous review of major water polluting projects, which huge fossil fuel production and distribution facilities often do,” said Devine. “Any attempt to short circuit that is gonna have trouble being consistent with the letter of the law.”

Just days into Trump’s presidency, his administration is facing multiple lawsuits, with judges temporarily blocking a freezing of federal funds and an effort to block birthright citizenship. Trump allies have said they are ready for legal fights over pipelines.

“It’s going to all about power plants and gas pipelines,” Mike Catanzaro, a Trump first-term veteran and CEO of the lobby group CGCN, said of the Trump energy agenda at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event this week. “And yes, if states try to get in the way — if they’re obstructing interstate commerce — there will be aggressive measures to override them.”

Trump’s national emergency declaration argues that the U.S. faces a looming crisis of electricity affordability and availability, even though the U.S. produces more oil, natural gas and renewables than ever before. The U.S. Energy Information Administration says there are roughly three million miles of natural gas pipelines in the U.S.

The president also promised on the campaign trail to cut in half energy costs for Americans. But natural gas prices are forecast to rise and gas exports are set to increase, potentially driving prices up more. Oil prices could spike with looming trade tensions or potential global conflict.

Fossil fuel supporters say gas is the best option if the pipelines can get built.

“It’s pretty daunting to even propose big new pipelines because you know what the regulatory gauntlet will be,” said Dustin Meyer, senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs at the American Petroleum Institute. “To meet the new demand, you have to be able to build this escape capacity from the major producing areas.”

Environmentalists have protested pipelines as antithetical to international climate goals, in which nations have agreed to begin “transitioning away” from fossil fuels, the main drivers of climate change. They have used the Clean Water Act — and other environmental laws — in their efforts to stop pipelines from being built.

The Mountain Valley pipeline, for example, was held up for years in legal proceedings before Congress ordered federal regulators in 2023 to approve the pipeline’s permits. Other major projects, like the Atlantic Coast pipeline and Constitution pipeline, were abandoned after extended legal battles.

Meyer said that states have been “rejecting pipelines under the Clean Water Act, not necessarily because of water quality issues, but because that project would be inconsistent with their broader climate goals.”

He said the impact of the Army Corps directive is “unknown.”

Pipeline groups are staying mum.

“While we are still analyzing the impacts of President Trump’s Executive Orders, as written, on our industry, we appreciate that the President has prioritized the development of American energy and its related infrastructure,” Amy Andryszak, president of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America.

Correction: An earlier version of this story mischaracterized the Clean Water Act’s emergency language.

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