Trump Moves to Scrap Biden-Era Methane Limits on Oil and Gas Wells, Including Program That Tracks Huge Leaks

LUBBOCK, Texas, Oct. 27 (TodayViralUSA) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday said his administration is “terminating” Biden-era limits on methane from oil and gas operations, as the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a proposal to scrap a program that tracks large leaks and to loosen standards for small wells and gas flaring.

“I’m officially terminating Biden’s expensive and unnecessary methane regulations to save consumers and energy producers $45 billion in costs,” Trump told a campaign rally in Lubbock for Texas Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton, saying the rules had “crushed the small operators.”

Despite the president’s framing, the EPA action is a proposed rule. It must go through public comment before it can be finalized.

What the EPA is proposing

The plan revises the 2024 Clean Air Act standards for the oil and gas sector, known by the technical labels OOOOb and OOOOc. That rule was the first to set nationwide methane limits for existing oil and gas facilities; an Obama-era rule from 2016 covered only new and modified sources. According to the EPA, the proposal would:

• Rescind the “Super Emitter” program, under which companies had to investigate major leaks spotted by EPA-approved third-party remote sensing.
• Create separate, less restrictive categories for certain well sites, with the agency weighing a split by production level (marginal versus non-marginal wells) or by resource type (conventional versus unconventional).
• Allow flaring at 95% efficiency for gas produced alongside oil, rather than requiring that gas to be routed to a sales line.
• Build a short repair window into standards for covers and closed vent systems, and add flexibility for monitoring and control-device requirements.

The agency estimates the changes would save $45 billion and add about 210 million barrels of oil and 1.41 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The Guardian noted that the added oil equals roughly 10 days of U.S. petroleum consumption. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin cast the move as ending “the war on oil and natural gas.”

Why methane matters

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas responsible for at least a quarter of present-day warming, and leaks from oil and gas sites also release volatile organic compounds that harm human health. The United States emitted more methane from its oil and gas sector last year than any other country, The Guardian reported.

The announcement comes as the administration faces criticism over high fuel prices tied to the war with Iran, and as it seeks to encourage more domestic drilling a week before the midterm elections.

Critics push back

Environmental groups said the rollback rewards the industry’s biggest polluters. “What 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’re wasting energy,” said Rosalie Winn, senior director and lead counsel at the Environmental Defense Fund. The group estimates operators have leaked, vented or flared $7 billion worth of natural gas since the EPA said in March 2025 that it would reconsider the rules.

Records obtained by the watchdog group Fieldnotes show industry groups and companies met with the EPA on methane rules at least 38 times during the administration’s first year, The Guardian reported.