The Environmental Protection Agency plans to undo Biden-era standards and end the Super Emitter Program.

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to lower standards that limit methane leaks from oil and gas infrastructure, reversing Biden-era rules that regulators expected to cut emissions by 80 percent over 14 years. Administrator Lee Zeldin says the rollback saves producers $45 billion.

Methane forms the bulk of what industry calls natural gas and traps up to 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide over 20 years. Marginal wells produce 6 percent of US oil and gas but account for half of the sector’s methane emissions, according to ProPublica.

The agency also plans to end the Super Emitter Program, which alerted operators to releases of 100 kilograms per hour or more. Losing those alerts leaves operators without a federal signal that a site is leaking heavily, and the change shifts detection work onto company monitoring.

Trump is expected to announce the proposal from a rally in Lubbock, Texas, the top oil and gas producing state and the largest data center market in the world. Texas has more data center capacity under construction than any other state.

What matters

• The EPA plans to roll back rules that would have cut methane emissions by 80 percent over 14 years.
• Operators of marginal wells and large leaking sites will face fewer reporting and repair obligations.
• Texas hosts the announcement, and its data center buildout makes methane limits a power question.

Why it matters

Texas hosts the announcement, and its data center buildout makes methane limits a power question.

This GenAI News article was prepared in original wording using reporting and materials published by The Verge. Source reference: https://www.theverge.com/policy/1019691/gas-leak-methane-rule-rollback-trump.

Drafted by the GenAI News review pipeline.