{"id":229029,"date":"2026-10-28T17:39:05","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T17:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-says-government-to-terminate-biden-era-methane-emissions-rules-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T17:39:05","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T17:39:05","slug":"trump-says-government-to-terminate-biden-era-methane-emissions-rules-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-says-government-to-terminate-biden-era-methane-emissions-rules-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says government to \u2018terminate\u2019 Biden-era methane emissions rules – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Critics warn of climate danger as president in Texas claims change will save companies and consumers billions
Donald Trump said his administration is \u201cterminating\u201d Biden-era regulations holding oil and gas companies accountable for large leaks of planet-warming methane during a rally in Lubbock, Texas, on Tuesday evening.
\u201cTonight, I\u2019m officially terminating Biden\u2019s expensive and unnecessary methane regulations to save consumers and energy producers,\u201d Trump said, lifting what he called \u201ccrippling regulations on methane that caused prices to skyrocket\u201d for small oil and gas operators. The change would save consumers and energy producers $45bn and unlock 210m barrels of oil, he said, which is equivalent to about 10 days of US petroleum consumption.
In a press release<\/a>, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator, Lee Zeldin, praised what he called Trump\u2019s move \u201cto end the war on oil and natural gas\u201d by revising oil and natural gas regulations under the Clean Air Act. The proposal is expected to produce an estimated 210m additional barrels of oil and 1.41tn cubic ft of natural gas, according to the EPA.
The EPA\u2019s proposal violates the Clean Air Act\u2019s duty to protect public health and welfare and would seriously harm communities near oil and gas development, as well as the wider public, said Darin Schroeder, the methane legal and regulatory director at Clean Air Task Force (CATF). \u201cEPA\u2019s crusade against limits for emissions scientifically proven to harm public health and the environment must stop, and the agency must rescind this unlawful proposal and implement the 2024 rule without delay.\u201d
Curbing pollution from the oil and gas industry is critical to protecting public health, said Harold Wimmer, president and CEO of the American Lung Association. \u201cThis not only carries environmental consequences, but leaks can also release harmful pollutants like volatile organic compounds that worsen air quality and carcinogens like benzene and formaldehyde,\u201d he said. \u201cIf finalized, this proposal would help polluting industries avoid cleanup and harm the communities who bear the brunt of dirtier air and a warming planet.\u201d
At a Trump rally in Corpus Christi earlier in the day, Trump shouted out Harold Hamm<\/a>, saying the founder of Continental Resources was in the audience. In April, Continental Resources wrote a letter<\/a> to the EPA pushing back against measures in the methane rule that prohibit routine flaring of associated gas.
Although some oil and gas executives spoke publicly<\/a> in favor of the landmark methane rule<\/a>, industry trade groups and corporations worked behind the scenes to gut the methane regulations, according to trade association materials and records obtained via the Freedom of Information Act by Fieldnotes<\/a>, an oil and gas watchdog organization.
The 2024 methane rule required oil and gas operators to eliminate and minimize leaking, flaring and venting of methane and of volatile organic compounds, which are harmful to human health.
It was the first time<\/a> the federal government had set nationwide requirements to limit methane emissions from existing oil and gas facilities. An earlier rule finalized under the Obama administration in 2016 applied to new and modified sources. Under the rule\u2019s super emitter program<\/a>, companies had to investigate major leaks near oil and gas facilities detected by third parties using EPA-approved remote sensing technology.
In March 2025, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin announced<\/a> that the agency was reconsidering the Biden-Harris regulations \u201cto ensure that they do not prevent America from unleashing energy dominance and continuing our trajectory as a leader in clean energy and emissions reductions\u201d.
Last year, the US emitted more methane<\/a> from its oil and gas sector than any other country in the world. Methane is responsible for at least a quarter<\/a> of today\u2019s warming.
Julia Kane, a researcher for Fieldnotes, said the Trump Environmental Protection Agency was giving oil and gas corporations exactly what they want. \u201cThe oil and gas industry says it\u2019s a \u2018good-faith\u2019 partner eager to help craft regulations, but time and time again it\u2019s worked behind the scenes to delay and weaken them,\u201d she said.
Records obtained by Fieldnotes, including calendar events, presentation slides and meeting request forms, show that industry groups and companies met with the EPA to discuss methane regulations at least 38 times during the current administration\u2019s first year.
\u201cI do think it\u2019s just an extraordinary level of access,\u201d Kane said, adding that industry groups themselves were pleasantly surprised by their access under Trump. For example, during a conference call with industry representatives last year, Independent Petroleum Association of America executive Lee Fuller described a discussion with EPA staff, saying: \u201cIt was one of the more fascinating meetings that we\u2019ve ever had, just because they were suddenly willing to talk to us. And they were also suddenly willing to talk about things that we\u2019ve been trying to get them to do for years, and they\u2019ve never even let it come on to the radar screen.\u201d
Since the EPA announced it would no longer enforce oil and gas regulations in March 2025, oil and gas operators have leaked, vented or flared $7bn worth of natural gas<\/a>, according to calculations by the Environmental Defense Fund.
Rosalie Winn, senior director and lead counsel at the Environmental Defense Fund, said the Trump administration<\/a> was seeking to curtail the federal government\u2019s ability to do anything to address climate pollution across all of the largest sectors responsible for emissions.
\u201cWhat this administration is doing is enabling the worst polluters in the industry to continue to make ever more money off the back of American consumers while they\u2019re wasting energy,\u201d she said.
Robert Mackey contributed reporting<\/em><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Critics warn of climate danger as president in Texas claims change will save companies and consumers billionsDonald Trump said his administration is \u201cterminating\u201d Biden-era regulations holding oil and gas companies accountable for large leaks of planet-warming methane during a rally in Lubbock, Texas, on Tuesday evening.\u201cTonight, I\u2019m officially terminating Biden\u2019s expensive and unnecessary methane regulations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":229030,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-229029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}