Trump says government to ‘terminate’ Biden-era methane emissions rules

Donald Trump at the rally in Lubbock on Tuesday. Photograph: Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenDonald Trump at the rally in Lubbock on Tuesday. Photograph: Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty ImagesTrump says government to ‘terminate’ Biden-era methane emissions rulesCritics warn of climate danger as president in Texas claims change will save companies and consumers billions

Donald Trump said his administration was “terminating” 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.

“Tonight, I’m officially terminating Biden’s expensive and unnecessary methane regulations to save consumers and energy producers,” Trump said, lifting what he called “crippling regulations on methane that caused prices to skyrocket” 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, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator, Lee Zeldin, praised what he called Trump’s move “to end the war on oil and natural gas” 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’s proposal violates the Clean Air Act’s 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). “EPA’s 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.”

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. “This 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,” he said. “If finalized, this proposal would help polluting industries avoid cleanup and harm the communities who bear the brunt of dirtier air and a warming planet.”

At a Trump rally in Corpus Christi earlier in the day, Trump shouted out Harold Hamm, saying the founder of Continental Resources was in the audience. In April, Continental Resources wrote a letter 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 in favor of the landmark methane rule, 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, 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 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’s super emitter program, 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 that the agency was reconsidering the Biden-Harris regulations “to ensure that they do not prevent America from unleashing energy dominance and continuing our trajectory as a leader in clean energy and emissions reductions”.

Last year, the US emitted more methane from its oil and gas sector than any other country in the world. Methane is responsible for at least a quarter of today’s warming.

Julia Kane, a researcher for Fieldnotes, said the Trump Environmental Protection Agency was giving oil and gas corporations exactly what they want. “The oil and gas industry says it’s a ‘good-faith’ partner eager to help craft regulations, but time and time again it’s worked behind the scenes to delay and weaken them,” 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’s first year.

“I do think it’s just an extraordinary level of access,” 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, the Independent Petroleum Association of America executive Lee Fuller described a discussion with EPA staff, saying: “It was one of the more fascinating meetings that we’ve ever had, just because they were suddenly willing to talk to us. And they were also suddenly willing to talk about things that we’ve been trying to get them to do for years, and they’ve never even let it come on to the radar screen.”