Louisiana’s environmental agency has cut its staff by nearly a quarter over the past 15 years, one of the sharpest reductions for state pollution regulators nationwide, according to a new report from the watchdog group Environmental Integrity Project.

The state has also slashed funding for the agency by 26% over the same time period, according to the report, which warns of the growing risk of severely weakened environmental enforcement both locally and nationally. 

The reductions at the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality are part of a larger national trend, the report concluded. The watchdog group examined budgets of environmental agencies across all 50 states from 2010 to 2024, and found that more than half cut budgets and nearly two-thirds reduced department staffing.

Louisiana’s pattern aligns with all of its Gulf Coast neighbors. Mississippi saw the nation’s biggest cuts, reducing its budget by more than 70%. Coastal states from Texas to Florida all saw funding and staffing losses, though the report notes the trends didn’t fall entirely along traditional party lines. Connecticut, for example, cut funding at its state agency at nearly twice the rate of Louisiana. 

The report frames these state agency losses in the context of a weakened federal environmental agency. Over the last year, the second Trump administration has shrunk the EPA in size and capacity, rolling back pollution prevention measures as part of an “energy dominance” agenda highly favorable to oil, gas and petrochemical industries. The administration is pushing for further cuts to the federal agency, and Congress is scheduled to vote on EPA’s funding in January. 

“Not only will the federal pollution cop no longer be on the beat, state authorities may not show up either,” the watchdog report states. 

Louisiana has been directly impacted by a number of Trump’s energy and environmental policies. In July, the administration exempted a dozen industrial plants from following a pollution rule aimed at reducing health risks in the area called “Cancer Alley” by advocates. Top Trump officials touted their goals of removing red tape for industry during a visit to one of Louisiana’s biggest liquefied natural gas terminals in Plaquemines Parish in March. 

Meagan Molter, press secretary for DEQ, said that the agency “continued to meet all federal grant requirements and performance expectations” by the EPA.

“Under the leadership of Gov. Jeff Landry, the administration remains fully committed to robust environmental protection efforts that promote the health, safety and welfare of the people of Louisiana,” Molter said. 

‘Low staffing levels, high workloads’

Over the last 15 years, Louisiana cut 222 positions from the state environmental agency out of a previous total of 933, state records cited in the report showed. Louisiana ranked fourth in the nation for staffing cuts, following North Carolina, Connecticut and Arizona. 

Most of these cuts came under the administration of Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal, who lauded his deregulation efforts in the state as a key accomplishment during his failed 2015 presidential campaign.

During Jindal’s administration, staffing at the department decreased by roughly a third and funding shrank by $92 million, when adjusted for inflation. Staffing and funding at LDEQ rose marginally under his successor, Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, but not to pre-2008 levels. 

The watchdog group points to a 2021 report from the Louisiana Legislative Auditor that found DEQ “does not issue enforcement actions in a timely manner” to facilities that violate their pollution permits.

Louisiana had the highest toxic air emissions per square mile of any state, according to a 2014 EPA assessment, the audit notes. But jobs at DEQ related to air quality regulation decreased by around 15% between 2010 and 2019. 

“We found as well that DEQ faces challenges related to low staffing levels, high workloads, frequent turnover of staff, and ineffective data systems that make it more difficult to perform its regulatory work,” Daryl G. Purpera, the auditor, wrote. 

LNG expansion

The Environmental Integrity Project notes the system of “shared responsibility” between the EPA and state departments. The federal agency sets the standard and provides oversight for pollution laws like the Clean Air Act, while state departments like LDEQ implement and enforce these rules on a routine basis. 

“If both lines of defense fail, through harsh cuts to federal and state environmental agencies, public health, our natural ecosystems and the global climate will suffer serious and lasting harm,” said Jen Duggan, the executive director of the watchdog group. 

She said Louisiana “provides a clear example” of state-level rollbacks in the midst of rapid industrial expansion. The number of industrial facilities that require air pollution control permits rose in the state by almost 30% between 2016 and 2024.

The liquefied natural gas industry is a centerpiece of Louisiana’s industrial growth — and controversy. The export industry has boomed in southwest Louisiana in the last decade and transformed the state into the global epicenter of LNG. 

The technology at the massive LNG terminals converts natural gas into liquid form by supercooling it, allowing it to be loaded and exported around the world. Proponents of LNG tout job creation, revenue and the importance of supplying U.S. allies with fuel long seen as burning cleaner than coal.

But making LNG is more energy-intensive than burning gas alone, leading to more emissions. An October report from the Environmental Integrity Project found that all operating LNG terminals in the country violated air pollution rules, and multiple Louisiana facilities were the top polluters. 

Duggan said some of the on-the-ground impacts of a hobbled state agency dealing with this growing industry are fewer inspectors, fewer people to respond to community complaints and longer time periods resolving a violation. 

Anne Rolfes, director of the environmental advocacy group Louisiana Bucket Brigade, also critiqued in the report DEQ’s Expedited Permit Program, where companies can pay the agency for costs incurred from employees working overtime to expedite a permit. 

“When industry pays for the permitting process, they get what they pay for,” Rolfes said. “I’ve been doing this work, and I have never seen the Department of Environmental Quality deny a permit.”