EPA Projects $45 Billion in Savings From Revising Methane Rules
Key Facts
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on October 27 announced a proposal to revise oil and gas rules adopted by the Biden administration under the Clean Air Act, in a move President Donald Trump said would lower energy costs and encourage domestic production. The agency estimated the proposed changes would save consumers and businesses $45 billion and enable an additional 210 million barrels of oil and 1.41 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Those figures remain estimates tied to the proposal, not savings or production volumes already realized. Trump and agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the action in Lubbock, Texas. At a campaign rally, Trump said he was ending “costly and unnecessary” methane rules to save producers and consumers $45 billion, while the agency describes the action as a proposal to amend the rules.
The proposal aims, according to the agency, to ease requirements covering marginal wells, which account for about four out of every five producing wells in the United States. Reuters reported that the previous rules required companies to repair equipment leaking emissions and regularly inspect wells for methane leaks, while the plan would ease those requirements and allow exemptions for low-production wells. The agency says the rule adopted by the Biden administration in 2024 was then estimated to have regulatory costs of $18 billion. The current proposal offers a different estimate, linking the changes to $45 billion in savings, along with additional oil and gas production. The figures put small, aging wells at the center of the proposed changes, given their prevalence in the U.S. industry.
Among the specific changes is the withdrawal of the “super-emitter” program, which allows approved third parties to report major leak events. The Environmental Protection Agency said it is proposing to revoke those entities’ certification under the program, citing legal concerns and other practices for identifying emissions. This change does not call for ending all leak-monitoring programs; it applies specifically to the mechanism for reporting super-emitter events. For associated gas, the agency proposes again allowing it to be flared at 95% efficiency or managed with other controls to reduce emissions. That option replaces the requirement to route all associated gas from oil wells to a sales line, according to the agency’s description of the proposal.
The proposed changes differ in scope from the previous rule, which for the first time covered existing oil and gas sources nationwide, alongside standards for new, modified and reconstructed sources. In 2023, the agency estimated that the rule would prevent 58 million tons of methane emissions from 2024 to 2038, equivalent to 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide. It also projected a reduction of nearly 80% in methane emissions expected without the rule, and said the 2030 reductions would equal about 130 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, or the annual emissions of more than 28 million gasoline-powered cars. The agency also projected avoiding 16 million tons of volatile organic compounds and 590,000 tons of toxic air pollutants between 2024 and 2038, and preventing the leakage or release of about 400 billion cubic feet of fuel annually. It estimated the previous rule’s total net benefits at between $97 billion and $98 billion over 2024–2038, calculated in 2019 dollars and after accounting for compliance costs and recovered gas.
The announcement is part of the administration’s effort to encourage more domestic drilling, as it faces criticism over rising fuel prices amid the war in Iran, according to the Associated Press. The agency estimated that the additional oil the proposal could enable—210 million barrels—would equal about 10 days of U.S. oil consumption. Reuters linked the announcement of eased rules to Trump’s Texas trip to support Ken Paxton in the Senate race, and said it was his third visit to the state in October. The election referenced in the report was scheduled for the following Tuesday, while Paxton was in a close race with Democrat James Talarico. The Environmental Protection Agency is set to open a public comment period of at least 45 days, including a hearing, after the proposal is published in the Federal Register.