Trump EPA Repeals Methane Rules Over Public Objections Of Several Major Oil Companies, Insists On Liberating Industry From Regulation Industry Has Asked To Keep

WASHINGTON. The Environmental Protection Agency Thursday finalized a rule rescinding federal regulations on methane emissions from the oil and gas industry, eliminating Obama-era requirements that companies detect and repair leaks of the potent greenhouse gas from their operations, and completing a long-standing administration goal of deregulating an industry that had repeatedly and publicly asked not to be deregulated.

The rule, which removes methane limits on new oil and gas wells and ends federal methane monitoring requirements at processing facilities, was finalized over the public objections of several of the world's largest oil and gas companies, including BP, Shell, and ExxonMobil, all of which had urged the administration to leave the standards in place. Smaller domestic producers, who lacked the capital to comply and were therefore enthusiastically in favor of the rules' elimination, applauded the move.

"We are very pleased the President has chosen to relieve American oil and gas producers of this onerous burden," said one administration official, declining to specify which oil and gas producers had requested the relief. "Industry has been very clear with us about what industry needs, and we have listened carefully to the industry that agreed with us."

Methane is roughly 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas over a 20-year period, a scientific consensus the EPA acknowledged in the rule's own accompanying analysis before proceeding to finalize the rule anyway. The agency estimated the rollback would save the oil and gas industry approximately $19 million per year, a figure the EPA identified as sufficient justification for releasing the atmospheric equivalent of millions of additional tons of methane annually.

The President, asked Thursday whether he was concerned that several major oil companies had publicly opposed the action being taken on their behalf, said he had not heard that anyone opposed it. "Everybody loves it, the industry loves it, they're so happy," he said. "We're saving so much money."

Sources within the administration noted that the rule was finalized 82 days before the general election, providing the President a tangible deregulatory accomplishment to point to during campaign rallies in oil and gas producing states, and providing oil and gas producing states a tangible reason to fund those rallies.

At press time, BP, Shell, and ExxonMobil had each independently announced they would continue to monitor and repair their own methane leaks regardless of the federal rule's elimination, citing investor pressure, the European market, and a general corporate preference for their product not floating directly into the sky.