The Environmental Protection Agency plans to roll back regulations on methane emissions and other greenhouse gases for the oil and gas industry, the agency’s administrator, Lee Zeldin, announced at a meeting of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association on Wednesday.
Zeldin told event attendees that the EPA’s program that allows third parties to identify and report large methane leaks was unnecessary and ineffective, according to reporting from the Santa Fe New Mexican.
The Biden administration adopted standards for the oil and gas industry in 2024 to reduce emissions of methane, which is more than 28 times as potent as carbon dioxide. The Trump administration suspended the implementation of the Biden administration’s standards in 2025.
In a press release, the EPA said the agency is “days not weeks away” from announcing a proposal to reconsider those standards. Zeldin said the agency had heard from energy producers that the standards were unworkable and holding back progress.
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Among other changes, the reconsideration is expected to include changes to how oil wells are categorized and a rescission of the “super emitter” program that strengthened reporting on methane emissions, according to the EPA’s press release.
Mahyar Sorour, director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Fossil Fuels Policy program, called the move “foolsish and short-sighted.”
“It took many years and carefully considered input from health experts, community advocates, and even the oil and gas industry itself to craft the achievable, common-sense methane standards,” she said in a statement. “Yet, the Trump administration, with pockets lined by the biggest polluters, has unceremoniously worked to roll back this and other standards meant to protect our health and safety.”
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