In a letter from Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, Oklahoma officials were told they have environmental regulatory power over all Indian territory in the state except for Osage County.
Zeldin informed Gov. Kevin Stitt in mid-May after the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes created their own environmental division and notified oil and gas operators of their intent to regulate them.
“This letter and the attached appendices constitute the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s final decision, after reconsideration, approving the State of Oklahoma’s July 22, 2020, request to administer the State’s EPA-approved environmental regulatory programs in certain areas of Indian Country under Section 10211(a) of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act [SAFETEA] of 2005,” Zeldin wrote.
He said the recent EPA decision overturned a Jan. 13, 2025, decision made by the EPA’s then-Acting Administrator Jane Nishida at the end of the Biden administration. She withdrew a 2020 decision and replaced it with one that required the state to coordinate with affected Native American tribes and seek their views as Oklahoma administered its EPA-approved regulatory programs within and around the affected tribes’ areas of Indian Country.
“That condition exceeded EPA’s authority under the clear and mandatory terms of SAFETEA and EPA has no discretion but to withdraw it,” wrote Zeldin, who added, “With today’s final decision, it is EPA’s intent to steady the shifting landscape of EPA’s SAFETEA decision making and provide certainty to the State, Tribes, regulated community, and people of Oklahoma by providing a clear and final framework for environmental regulation under the federal statutes administered by EPA.”
SAFETEA was a funding and authorization bill that governs United States federal surface transportation spending. It was signed into law by President George W. Bush on Aug. 10, 2005, as Public Law 109-59.
Oklahoma Corporation Commissioners responded last month to the Cheyenne and Arapaho legislature’s approval of the creation of its own environmental regulatory agency and a letter sent to oil and gas operators within the tribe’s boundaries.
Billy Nichols, Environmental Director of the Cheyene Arapaho Environmental Protection Commission (EPC), mailed a letter dated July 7 to all oil and gas exploration/production operators working within the territory of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.
“Pursuant to the sovereign authority of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes and in accordance with federal law, this notice serves to inform all Oil and Gas Operators and Midstream Operators conducting operations within the territorial jurisdiction of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes that the Cheyenne Arapaho Environmental Protection Commission has been formally established and is now fully operational,” Nichols wrote.
A bill to create the “Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribe Environmental Quality Act of 2025” was introduced in April and approved in May during the regular session of the tribe’s Tenth Legislature.
Further, “effective immediately” the EPC is vested with the authority to inspect oil and gas facilities and associated infrastructure, monitor environmental conditions related to air and water quality, and to enforce compliance with applicable environmental regulations, Nichols said. The environmental regulations included the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and “all relevant federal, tribal and intergovernmental environmental protection standards.”
Failure to comply, Nichols warned, could result in assessment of fines, enforcement actions, and other remedial measures as “deemed necessary by the EPC to protect the health, welfare, and natural resources of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.”
Oil and gas operators within the tribal boundaries were “hereby directed to fully cooperate with EPC personnel and to maintain accessibility for scheduled or unscheduled inspections.”
Corporation Commission power derived from state Constitution “It’s important that we do not allow this letter to upend the flow of business for one of our state’s most important industries. We are in contact with our partner agencies on how best to address this issue” and the Corporation Commission “has its own Pollution Abatement Department to address environmental concerns,” Commission Chair Kim David wrote in a statement.
“Oklahoma oil and gas operators should know we are reviewing this matter closely and they should be assured the agency is moving forward with business as usual,” Corporation Commissioner Brian Bingman said at the time.
Bingman, who previously served as Oklahoma’s Secretary of Native American Affairs, added, “We always look for ways to work collaboratively with our tribal partners when appropriate, but as it sits today the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes do not have the proper ‘Treatment as a State’ designation by the federal government required to claim and execute this regulatory function.”
The Oklahoma Constitution, Article IX, Section IV, empowers the Corporation Commission to regulate the oil and gas industry in Oklahoma. That provision decrees, “All oil pipe companies shall be subject to the reasonable control and regulation of the Corporation Commission…” Osage County is the sole exception. The Environmental Protection Agency has environmental jurisdiction in that county, while energy production is regulated by the Osage Nation and the federal government. Additionally, unlike any other tribe in Oklahoma, the Osage Nation owns the mineral rights in Osage County.