Trump is making it easier for fossil fuel companies to leak methane

In its latest gift to oil and gas companies, the Trump administration is expected to announce plans today to weaken rules that guard against methane leaks.

Methane is a smog-forming pollutant and a powerful greenhouse gas that’s up to 80 times as potent as carbon dioxide on a 20-year horizon. It’s the primary component of what the fossil fuel industry calls “natural gas” that routinely leaks from oil and gas wells and pipelines.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is reversing course on its previous efforts to plug those leaks. As part of President Donald Trump’s deregulatory agenda, the EPA plans to undo Biden-era rules that were expected to cut methane emissions by 80 percent over 14 years.

The EPA teased the rule change earlier this month, saying in a press release that it was “days away” from making the proposal. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin says the rollbacks will save oil and gas companies $45 billion, while the previous rules would have incurred $18 billion in regulatory costs.

“This proposal takes on many of the problems American [oil and gas] producers and operators have raised with us,” Zeldin said in the October 7th press release. “The Trump EPA is committed to fixing this so the U.S. can reach its full energy potential.”

The agency is expected to step back standards for so-called “marginal wells” — old wells that produce little fuel but create an outsize amount of methane pollution from leaks. These wells are responsible for half of the industry’s methane emissions despite only producing 6 percent of US oil and gas, ProPublica reports. The EPA is also expected to end the Super Emitter Program that notified oil and gas infrastructure operators of large releases of methane reaching 100 kilograms per hour or more.