Trump says he's ending restrictions on climate-warming emissions from oil drilling

BILLINGS: President Donald Trump said Tuesday 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 consumers and energy producers USD 45 billion and unlock 210 million barrels of oil. That's equivalent to about 10 days of US petroleum consumption.

The move aims to encourage more domestic drilling as Trump faces criticism over high fuel prices amid the US 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.

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 US 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 criticized the latest rollback. They said it lets companies continue polluting the atmosphere with gas that could be captured and provide energy to millions of households.

“It will impose a heavier pollution burden on our front-line communities and make our energy sector less efficient,” said Max Lopez, an Environmental Law & Policy Center attorney.

Zeldin has said the methane rule would have cost USD 18 billion and was holding back the US energy industry.

“The Trump EPA is committed to fixing this so the US can reach its full energy potential,” he said last month.

The Biden methane rule was announced by officials including former Vice President Kamala Harris during a 2023 UN 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 USD 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 US, 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 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 USD 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 US 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.