Trump says he's ending restrictions on climate-warming methane from oil
drilling
[October 28, 2026] By
MATTHEW BROWN and MEAD GRUVER
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his
administration is “terminating” a Biden-era rule that aimed to cut
planet-warming emissions of methane from oil and gas drilling.
Trump said during a campaign rally in Texas that the change would save
companies and consumers billions of dollars and unlock 210 million
barrels of oil. That’s equivalent to about 10 days of U.S. petroleum
consumption.
The move aims to encourage more domestic drilling as Trump faces
criticism over high fuel prices amid the war in Iran.
Methane is responsible for about a third of planet-warming greenhouse
gas emissions, scientists estimate.
Cuts in methane emissions have emerged in recent years as a global
priority to slow the rate of climate change. Oil and gas operations are
the largest industrial source of methane, which is the main component in
natural gas and far more potent to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide in
the short term.
The invisible gas leaks from equipment and is released into the
atmosphere or burned off as a waste product by oil drillers.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin previewed the
changes last month, saying they would eliminate the agency’s “Super
Emitter Program” that requires companies to investigate and repair major
methane releases from oil and natural gas facilities. The agency would
also set less restrictive standards for small oil and gas wells.
Trump said during Tuesday's rally in Lubbock for Texas Republican Senate
candidate Ken Paxton that Biden's plan “crushed the small operators”
with crippling regulations.
“I’m officially terminating Biden’s expensive and unnecessary methane
regulations to save consumers and energy producers $45 billion in
costs,” Trump said.
The loosening of the emissions rule comes as Trump and Republicans in
Congress have been methodically dismantling climate policies enacted
under former President Joe Biden. That's included the revocation of a
scientific finding that was central to U.S. action on greenhouse gas
emissions, lower fuel economy standards for vehicles and a move to
repeal emission restrictions for coal and natural gas power plants.
Environmental groups said the latest rollback will let companies
continue polluting the atmosphere with gas that could be captured and
provide energy to millions of households.
Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp said it gives a “free
pass” to companies at the expense of American consumers.
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A flare burns off methane and other hydrocarbons as oil pumpjacks
operate in the Permian Basin in Midland, Texas, on Oct. 12, 2021.
(AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
 “EPA should be fighting this waste,
not making it easier,” he said.
Zeldin has said the methane rule would have cost $18 billion and was
holding back the U.S. energy industry.
The Biden methane rule was announced by officials including former
Vice President Kamala Harris during a 2023 U.N. climate conference
in the United Arab Emirates.
Federal officials under Biden said it would prevent an estimated 58
million tons (52.6 million metric tonnes) of methane emissions by
2038 and reduce other pollutants that cause health problems.
By 2034, the rule was projected to yield $98 billion in benefits.
That figure was derived by calculating the future “social costs” of
greenhouse gas emissions on public health and the environment, an
approach rejected by Trump's EPA.
While previous regulations focused only on new oil and gas wells in
the U.S., the Biden rule regulated existing wells. Operators also
would have needed to plug leaking methane from smaller wells that
produce just 6% of the nation’s oil and gas while accounting for up
to half of all methane emissions from oil and gas fields.
The final rule was published in 2024. The EPA last year imposed an
18-month delay to give companies time to meet new inspection
requirements and other provisions.
The rule was crafted to be coordinated with a methane fee, approved
in the 2022 climate law. The fee program would have levied a “waste
emissions charge” of as much as $1,500 per metric ton of methane on
energy producers that exceed a certain level of methane emissions.
The fee marked the first time the U.S. government directly imposed a
fee, or tax, on greenhouse gas emissions. Congress repealed it weeks
after Trump took office.
Officials also tried to rein in methane from oil and gas under
former President Barack Obama, but that effort was scaled back
during Trump's first term.
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Gruver reported from Fort Collins, Colorado.
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