Trump Announces Methane Rule Rollback at Lubbock Rally, EPA Puts Industry Savings at $45 Billion

After EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin previewed the plan earlier this month, the methane rollback has gone from agency preview to presidential campaign line. President Donald Trump announced it Tuesday night, Oct. 27, at a rally in Lubbock, Texas.

"Tonight, I'm officially terminating Biden's expensive and unnecessary methane regulations to save consumers and energy producers $45 billion in costs, unlock vast quantities of Texas natural gas, and produce 210 million barrels of oil," Trump told the crowd.

He gave no further detail from the stage. The EPA did, in a press release.

What the EPA says the proposal does

The agency describes the package as a revision of oil and gas regulations under the Clean Air Act. It says the proposal is expected to save $45 billion in costs to consumers and businesses, including small businesses operating marginal wells. It also projects an additional 210 million barrels of oil and 1.41 trillion cubic feet of natural gas from 2027 to 2050.

Those volumes are modest against current demand. The U.S. consumes about 21 million barrels of oil and 92 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day, so the totals equal roughly 10 days of oil and 15 days of gas, spread over 24 years.

The proposal targets several areas:

• Super Emitter Program. It would be eliminated. The program required operators to investigate major leaks detected by third parties using EPA-approved remote sensing technology. Final implementation was already delayed by the Trump administration until Jan. 22, 2027.
• Marginal wells. Rules would loosen for low-producing wells.
• Flaring. Biden-era restrictions on flaring, the burning off of excess gas during oil production, would be eased, including rules that would have phased out some flaring.
• Monitoring and repairs. The EPA release outlined "flexibility" for deviations in monitoring data, emission control alerts and some emissions test conditions, and Grist reports the proposal gives operators a 30-day window to repair a leak.

The 2024 rule was the first time the federal government set nationwide requirements to limit methane emissions from existing oil and gas facilities. An earlier rule finalized under the Obama administration in 2016 applied to new and modified sources.

Why marginal wells are the fight

Low-producing wells, also called stripper wells, produce roughly 7% to 8% of U.S. natural gas, according to NBC News, but research suggests they could account for about 50% of the methane that leaks into the atmosphere. Many are near the end of their lives or at risk of falling below the threshold of profitability.

The industry's case is about economics. The National Stripper Well Association wrote in a letter last month that "the costs associated with complying with these regulations will make the wells uneconomical to operate."

Zeldin has framed it as an affordability issue. "Americans must be able to afford to heat their homes in the winter and fill up their car and drive to work," he said when previewing the changes. "They can't do that when the people producing the energy are weighed down by unnecessary burdens."

That argument has a hard edge in politics. Fuel prices are high amid the U.S. war in Iran, and polls show high fuel costs are a key issue for many voters ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms.

The environmental objections

Environmental groups say the trade-off runs the other way. "Cutting methane emissions from the oil and gas industry is the fastest way to fight climate change," said Tsion Amare, a policy expert at the Environmental Defense Fund.

Liz Scott, a senior director of national advocacy at the American Lung Association, said a rollback would also increase air pollution from volatile organic compounds, which are released alongside leaking methane. "When you roll back protections on the leaking or flaring of methane, you're also going to roll back the protections that communities rely on for those air pollutants," she said.

Julia Kane, a researcher at the watchdog Fieldnotes, said the Trump EPA was giving oil and gas corporations exactly what they want. Fieldnotes says trade association materials and Freedom of Information Act records show industry groups and corporations worked behind the scenes to gut the rule even as some executives spoke publicly in favor of it, and that industry groups and companies met with the EPA to discuss methane regulations at least 38 times during the current administration's first year.

Rosalie Winn, senior director and lead counsel at the Environmental Defense Fund, said the administration is "enabling the worst polluters in the industry to continue to make ever more money off the back of American consumers while they're wasting energy." The Environmental Defense Fund calculates that since the EPA announced in March 2025 that it would no longer enforce oil and gas regulations, operators have leaked, vented or flared $7 billion worth of natural gas.

The Biden administration said its tightened rule would prevent 58 million tons of methane from entering the atmosphere between 2024 and 2038, the climate equivalent of taking 28 million gas-powered cars off the road for a year.

Methane is about 28 times as potent as carbon dioxide, by the figure used in The Hill's reporting, and scientists consider it about 80 times as potent over 20 years, according to NBC News. It is responsible for at least a quarter of today's warming, and the U.S. emitted more methane from its oil and gas sector last year than any other country, according to The Guardian.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham criticized the EPA's plan and said her state's methane rules "will remain firmly in place," with plans to strengthen them.

Status and timing

The EPA is calling this a proposal. Trump's word at the rally was "terminating." The Epoch Times reported that Zeldin, speaking at the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association's annual meeting in Santa Fe, said the agency would propose the changes "in the coming days." A proposal is not a final rule, and the sources reviewed do not say when a final rule would be issued.

The back-and-forth is also a cost to operators. Federal methane policy has flipped repeatedly: the Obama administration's 2016 rules, the first Trump administration's removal of them in August 2020, Congress reversing that in July 2021 under the Congressional Review Act, the Biden-era rule, and now this. It would be the fourth time an administration has changed the law on methane emissions in the last 10 years, the Epoch Times reported.

Trump made the announcement to boost Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican Senate candidate locked in a competitive race against Democrat James Talarico. Trump had spoken earlier in the day in Corpus Christi. The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

The $45 billion figure is the administration's own estimate, and the final form of the rule will depend on the process that follows the proposal.