President Trump told a campaign rally in Lubbock, Texas, on Tuesday night that his administration is moving to loosen federal methane regulations on the oil and gas industry.
The Hill reported the move as a proposal: the changes are ones the administration is expected to propose through the Environmental Protection Agency, not rules that have already been finalized.
The rally was Trump’s second Texas campaign stop of the day, held to support the Senate campaign of Republican Ken Paxton, the state attorney general.
Trump told supporters he was “officially terminating Biden’s expensive and unnecessary methane regulations,” and said the rollback had been in the works for a “long time” with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.
According to The Hill, the changes would loosen rules for marginal wells, which produce relatively little oil but are estimated to account for about half of the sector’s methane emissions.
The administration is also easing Biden-era limits on flaring, the burning of excess gas during oil production, and eliminating the Super Emitter Program, which requires companies to respond to credible reports of major methane leaks. An EPA press release described added “flexibility” for deviations in monitoring data, emission control alerts and some emissions test conditions.
The administration has said the changes could save the oil and gas sector $45 billion. An official said they would enable an additional 210 million barrels of oil and 1.41 trillion cubic feet of natural gas from 2027 to 2050.
The Hill calculated that as roughly 10 days of U.S. oil consumption and 15 days of gas, and reported that the moves are expected to worsen climate change while saving the industry money.
Methane is a planet-warming gas about 28 times as potent as carbon dioxide. When the Biden administration tightened the rules in 2023, it said they would keep 58 million tons of methane out of the atmosphere between 2024 and 2038.
The Associated Press reported that Trump told the crowd Biden’s plan “crushed the small operators,” and that Zeldin has said the Biden rule would have cost $18 billion and was holding back the energy industry.
Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp told the AP the rollback gives companies a “free pass” at the expense of consumers. The AP also noted the announcement comes as Trump faces criticism over high fuel prices amid the war in Iran.
