The Trump administration is formally terminating the Biden-era methane regulations that represented the first-ever federal limits on methane emissions from existing oil and gas facilities. The announcement came during a rally in Lubbock, Texas, with Trump framing the move as a $45 billion cost savings for consumers and energy producers and claiming it would unlock 210 million barrels of oil — roughly 10 days of US petroleum consumption. The methane rule, finalized in 2024, required oil and gas operators to eliminate and minimize leaking, flaring, and venting of methane and volatile organic compounds. Its super-emitter program compelled companies to investigate major leaks detected by third parties using EPA-approved remote sensing technology. EPA administrator Lee Zeldin had already announced in March 2025 that the agency was reconsidering the regulations to ensure they did not prevent "energy dominance." The backstory reveals a coordinated industry campaign that contradicts public messaging. While some executives like ExxonMobil spoke publicly in favor of methane regulation, industry trade groups and corporations worked behind the scenes to gut the rules, according to materials obtained via FOIA by Fieldnotes, an oil and gas watchdog. Records show industry groups and companies met with the EPA to discuss methane regulations at least 38 times during the administration's first year. Independent Petroleum Association of America executive Lee Fuller described the access as unprecedented: "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." The consequences of the enforcement pause are already measurable. Since the EPA announced it would no longer enforce oil and gas regulations in March 2025, operators have leaked, vented, or flared $7 billion worth of natural gas, according to Environmental Defense Fund calculations. The US already emitted more methane from its oil and gas sector than any other country in the world last year. Methane is responsible for at least a quarter of today's warming. The political economy is straightforward. At a rally in Corpus Christi earlier the same day, Trump gave a shoutout to Harold Hamm, founder of Continental Resources, who 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. The beneficiaries have names, addresses, and direct lines to the EPA. The claimed consumer benefit deserves scrutiny. The $45 billion figure is framed as savings for consumers and small businesses operating marginal wells, but the Environmental Defense Fund argues the opposite: the administration 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." The 210 million barrels of unlocked oil amounts to ten days of consumption — a rounding error in a country consuming roughly 20 million barrels daily. This is deregulation as wealth transfer. The costs — wasted gas, accelerated warming, health effects from volatile organic compounds — are socialized. The benefits — reduced compliance costs, continued flaring — accrue to a specific set of operators with specific names and specific EPA meeting calendars.
