President Donald Trump's administration is just "days" away from proposing more rollbacks to methane regulations on the oil and gas sector, US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Lee Zeldin said on Wednesday.
The upcoming proposal seeks to dismantle core parts of methane regulations finalized in 2024 under former president Joe Biden. EPA said that it plans to rescind a "super emitter" program that was meant to detect large methane leaks and propose new standards for low-producing "marginal" oil and gas wells, as part of broad regulatory changes the agency says will produce cost savings of $45bn.
"This proposal takes on many of the problems American producers and operators have raised with us," Zeldin said at an oil industry event in New Mexico. "That includes the burden on marginal wells and oil and gas operators in general, the super emitter program, associated gas and control device requirements."
The Biden administration expected the regulations would cut the oil and gas sector's emissions of methane — a potent greenhouse gas — by nearly 80pc below baseline levels. But Trump began chipping away at the methane regulations soon after taking office. Last year, EPA finalized an 18-month compliance delay, and EPA this year finalized a partial rollback it said would save operators $2.5bn over 15 years by letting them operate flares more often and cut back on flare gas testing.
But EPA appears on track to continue regulating methane emissions from the oil and gas industry under the Clean Air Act. The oil and gas industry had lobbied the administration to preserve at least some methane regulations, in part out of fear that fully repealing the rules would threaten their market access in Europe. For power plants and vehicles, EPA has disclaimed its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.
