The Trump administration announced on Tuesday, October 27, that it intended to formally reverse the methane emission regulations established by the Biden administration in 2024, a move the government estimates will save the oil and gas industry 45 billion dollars but which critics warn could release significant quantities of a greenhouse gas up to 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the short term.
The proposal, which has not yet been published in the Federal Register, represents the second phase of reconsideration of the EPA's methane rules, internally known as Koob and OOOOc, finalized in May 2024 under the direction of the former agency administrator. The first phase, announced in March 2026, already reduced leak inspection requirements for a specific category of wells. The new proposal goes further: it proposes the complete end of the Super Emitter Program, which certified third-party monitors to detect massive methane releases — events of up to 100 kilograms per hour — and required immediate operator response.
The details are specific and technical, but the potential impact is broad. According to the EPA's preliminary document, the proposal aims to create separate categories for well sites, adjusting standards for different types of wells. A critically affected category is stripper wells — more than 700,000 old wells, often poorly maintained and with a high propensity for methane leaks — which account for about half of the emissions from the U.S. oil and gas sector. The national stripper well association estimates that compliance costs range from $5,000 to $15,000 per well per year, potentially exceeding net income of $5,000 to $10,000, forcing operators to shut in, plug, or sell wells that would otherwise remain active.
The announcement was made during a campaign rally in the Texas primaries in Lubbock, to support the Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton — a politician historically involved in fighting environmental regulations in the state. In his speech, Trump officially declared the "termination" of the Biden administration's methane regulations, citing 45 billion dollars in savings for producers and consumers, along with unlocking 210 million barrels of oil and vast quantities of Texas natural gas.
What the administration has not disclosed is that the $45 billion estimate was not accompanied by any published regulatory impact analysis. The March 2026 edition had already estimated $2.5 billion in savings between 2024 and 2038 — approximately $208 million per year — based on verifiable data. The $45 billion figure is more than ten times larger and lacks documented backing.
The climate impact is the central point of contention. Methane is the second-largest contributor to global warming, behind only carbon dioxide. Unlike CO₂, which persists in the atmosphere for centuries, methane has a relatively short lifespan of 7 to 12 years, meaning its warming effect is intense and immediate. Reducing methane emissions from oil and gas extraction is widely considered the most effective and lowest-cost measure available to limit near-term global warming. More than 70% of methane emissions from the oil and gas sector can be technically avoided with already-available technologies, according to the International Energy Agency. NASA itself measured atmospheric methane at 1,939 parts per billion in May 2026 — a historical record.
The EPA, under the leadership of Lee Zeldin, argues that Biden's rules were "unworkable" and "were slowing American energy dominance." The proposal document cites legal concerns as justification for ending the Super Emitter Program, asserting that other practices already provide operators with timely and actionable information to detect and correct significant leaks, meeting Clean Air Act requirements. This claim, however, contradicts investigations such as the one by ProPublica, which documented how the program had identified hundreds of super-emission events that would otherwise have gone undetected until the methane was fully released into the atmosphere.
The legislation accompanying the deregulation package — known internally as the One Big Beautiful Bill — also eliminated the methane waste emissions fee that was scheduled to begin in 2025, previously delayed by 10 years. Congress and the Trump administration acted in concert to dismantle the full set of climate policies enacted under Biden, including the revocation of a fundamental scientific finding that had served as the basis for virtually all subsequent environmental regulation.
The regulatory process will now enter a public comment period of at least 45 days, followed by the possible publication of a final rule. Meanwhile, the industry has already signaled it is ready to operate under the new framework. The question remains: whether the projected $45 billion in savings materializes or proves, as has been the pattern in previous revisions, to be a political figure without analytical backing — and what climate cost the country will pay for that accounting. The question is whether the promise of cheap energy justifies the long-term risk of destabilized climate systems, or if short-term savings will prove to be the most expensive miscalculation in American energy policy.
Sources: The Verge, AP News, ProPublica
✓ Independent sources cross-checked and verified before publishing
