CLIMATEWIRE | The fossil fuel sector is lobbying the Trump administration to discard a proposed regulation aimed at shielding workers from severe heat, claiming it threatens the president’s goal of securing “energy dominance.”

This challenge emerges as those employed in U.S. oil and gas operations are increasingly exposed to perilous conditions due to escalating global temperatures and heightened climate pollution. The sector is a leading national source of heat-related fatalities and injuries among workers.

The American Petroleum Institute, along with other industry associations, has urged the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to drop the rule, initiated during former President Joe Biden’s tenure, which mandates that employers provide water and rest breaks when temperatures exceed 80 degrees. These federal safeguards were introduced for the first time last year as global temperatures hit the highest ever recorded by humans.

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In a December memo to the Department of Labor, which had not been disclosed before, the API highlighted the proposed heat regulation as one of the top priorities in its “vision for American energy leadership.”

“The oil and gas industry is ready to maximize its potential in this new era of energy dominance,” the memo stated, emphasizing that these priorities are “crucial for realizing this energy potential.”

Since 2017, heat has caused the deaths of 137 workers nationwide and led to thousands of hospitalizations, according to a POLITICO’s E&E News analysis of OSHA data. While construction and agriculture workers face a significant share of heat-related injuries and deaths, those in the fossil fuel extraction and support sectors also suffer from extreme temperatures. The oil and gas industry accounts for 4 percent of heat-related deaths in the U.S. and nearly 7 percent of worker hospitalizations, as per federal statistics.

This places the industry among the top sectors for heat-related hospitalizations and within the top five for heat-related deaths in the nation. Workers have experienced illness or death while operating drilling rigs, laying pipelines, and transporting chemicals.

Intense physical activity can exacerbate the risks of high temperatures, leading to kidney damage, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke — a life-threatening condition that can cause organ failure and death within minutes.

The trend of record-breaking temperatures year after year hints at what could be a deadly summer, as climate change, driven by fossil fuel combustion, intensifies global heatwaves. Texas has already endured 100-degree temperatures in May, a record for the month, and forecasts indicate that the rest of the country will face above-average warmth.

When proposing the heat protections in July, OSHA mentioned the death toll from heat and the role of climate change in these fatalities. The rules are intended to protect around 35 million people.

Many of the stipulations in the heat rule reflect long-standing recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, dating back to the 1970s.

Currently, the fate of the rule rests with the Trump administration, which has actively sought to dismantle climate-related offices, scrap regulations to reduce greenhouse gases, and cut climate funding. President Donald Trump has expressed skepticism about fundamental climate science concepts.

The first indication of the rule’s potential survival may come in June, when OSHA officials are scheduled to conduct a hearing to gather public feedback on the proposal.

API spokesperson Charlotte Law, when asked about heat illness rates within the oil and gas industry, stated, “we have no additional comments beyond the memo.”

The document criticizes the draft rule’s requirements for rest breaks, arguing it “unreasonably restricts work/exposure hours for seasoned workers, potentially causing operational challenges without any clear enhancement of safety.”

Restrictive Heat Regulations Impede Innovation

Since 2017, OSHA has reported six heat-related deaths involving workers in the fossil fuel sector.

These incidents include a construction worker who collapsed at a gas-fired power station and several fatalities due to heat while clearing blocked wells and pipes. Additional deaths occurred during tasks like pressure washing equipment under the hot sun, with one fatal case involving a worker who was cleaning up spilled metallurgical coke, as per OSHA records.

Since 2017, about 149 workers in the oil and gas field have been hospitalized due to heat exposure, in contrast to nine workers in the wind and solar energy sectors.

One OSHA report described a Texas worker who began showing signs of heat illness — cramps and nausea — while attempting to unclog two well holes in 2017. Rather than being allowed a break, the worker was urged to keep working. He later died after suffering convulsions, without receiving medical care. OSHA initially fined the employer, Patco Wireline Services, $21,367 for three serious violations, although these were later waived in a settlement.

Attempts to contact officials from Patco, based in Houma, Louisiana, were unsuccessful.

In each of the six industry-related heat deaths since 2017, OSHA issued citations under legal provisions requiring employers to maintain workplaces free from “recognized hazards” — a generic requirement that would be replaced by the more specific heat rule, if it is ever implemented.

The proposed heat regulation outlines precise measures employers must take to prevent workers from falling ill. Besides providing water and rest breaks, companies would need to train managers and workers on recognizing symptoms of heat illness and knowing when to seek medical help.

“There are many situations where workers can’t just say, ‘It’s getting hot out here, I need to drink some water,’ and this rule would help protect them before they become so sick they need hospitalization or face death,” noted Jordan Barab, former deputy assistant secretary for OSHA during the Obama administration.

However, oil and gas groups see it differently. In a January letter to OSHA, API, along with the American Exploration and Production Council, the International Association of Drilling Contractors, and others, criticized the rule as “flawed.”

The groups argued that the rule imposes “a one-size-fits-all prescriptive standard on arguably the most common hazard faced by employers across the U.S.”

“Unless the heat rule is significantly altered, OSHA would impose unnecessary burdens and hinder the creativity, innovation, and tailored performance-oriented solutions that the oil and gas industry aims to promote,” they stated. “We hope this version of the proposed heat rule does not progress through the rulemaking process.”

The industry particularly objects to the temperature thresholds in the proposed rule, which mandate water and rest breaks when the combined heat and humidity hit 80 degrees. At 90 degrees, workers would receive 15-minute breaks to rest and hydrate every two hours, with these breaks being compensated.

Such “unrestricted access to breaks” is impractical, the industry contends. “Employers should be allowed to determine break schedules based on their specific operational needs,” the groups argued.

They noted that the rule would pose challenges in both cold and warm climates — from the North Slope of Alaska to the Permian Basin in Texas. Days reaching 80 degrees are so rare in Alaska, they argued, that “the costs of implementing the Heat Rule’s requirements are not justifiable and would be excessively burdensome and difficult to consistently apply.”

It would also “constitute a significant burden” in Texas because temperatures regularly exceed 80 degrees, “requiring employers to comply with the initial heat requirements nearly half the time,” the letter stated.

Misleading Campaign

The fossil fuel sector is not the only one opposing the proposed rule. Representatives from the construction and manufacturing sectors have voiced similar concerns at a recent hearing of the House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections.

However, the oil and gas industry may have an advantage during the Trump administration.

On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order aimed at “unleashing American energy,” which directed federal departments to review existing regulations and policies that “impose an undue burden on the identification, development, or use of domestic energy resources.”

Neither OSHA nor the Department of Labor has responded to inquiries about whether they have completed this review. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer has shown support for the fossil fuel industry, though she has not publicly commented on the heat rule.

“Unleashing American energy will create good-paying jobs and reduce costs for businesses and families,” she stated in an April post on X about the department’s efforts to “secure American Energy Dominance.”

She also visited an oil and gas facility in Bakersfield, California, owned by California Resources, to celebrate “President Trump’s first 100 days of economic success.”

As the Trump administration deliberates on whether to discard OSHA’s heat rule, more workers could be at risk — and not just in the fossil fuel industry.

Shana Udvardy, a senior climate analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, which advocates for worker heat protections, argued that the fossil fuel industry’s role in heat deaths extends beyond the climate pollution it emits.

“If not for the fossil fuel industry’s prolonged, multi-decade campaign of misinformation, the U.S. and the world might have taken far more aggressive measures to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change,” she stated.

“If the industry were contributing its fair share towards the costs of climate damages and adaptation,” she added, “we’d have greater public resources and capacity to safeguard workers.”

Reprinted from E&E News with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2025. E&E News delivers essential news for energy and environment professionals.