By Zahra Hirji | Updated on Oct 07, 2026 at 07:59 PM
The US Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday it is readying a proposal to loosen federal rules designed to cut methane releases from oil and gas operations.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin previewed the upcoming rule proposal in a speech at the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association annual meeting in Santa Fe.
The Trump EPA “is days” away from announcing the new rules, Zeldin said in a statement released by the agency. “The proposal takes on many of the problems American producers and operators have raised with us,” he added.
The proposal will include changing Biden-era requirements for the lowest-producing wells, known as marginal wells, and rescinding the Methane Super-Emitter Program designed to help spot the biggest methane releases.
Methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide in the short term, with a roughly 80 times higher warming potential in the initial 20 years after release into the air. The oil and gas sector represents the nation’s largest industrial source of methane pollution.