The Trump administration is trying to ease regulations around methane emissions from oil wells — and the clock is ticking to make public comments.
Previous 2024 Biden-era rules stated companies needed to get rid of 100% of emissions from wells. Now the Environmental Protection Agency, including Regional Administrator Cyrus Western, is saying methane emissions should be reduced by at least 95%.
“That's a pretty high score … Why should they get dinged?” said Western, the administrator for Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and other mountain and plains states.
Western said the changes will specifically help operators of low-producing, or “marginal,” wells. He said many of these well operators are small, mom-and-pop businesses that have few employees and produce a few barrels of oil a day.
“ Why would we force them to tie a hand behind their back, and maybe some of them even go out of business entirely, when there's an alternative that sets a very high standard?” Western said.
However, some environmental groups, such as the Environmental Defense Fund, say that standard isn’t high enough. Jon Goldstein is the associate vice president for energy transition at the nonprofit.
“Rolling back these safeguards would mean more wasted energy, more methane pollution and greater health risks for communities living near oil and gas operations,” Goldstein said in a press release.
The EDF also says that the majority of low-producing wells are owned by large companies, not small businesses. Companies with fewer than 10 sites control just 3% of low-producing well sites, while large companies dominate ownership, according to an EDF analysis of information from Enverus, an energy analytics company. It also says these sites account for less than 5% of oil and gas production, but up to half of methane emissions from wells.
It’s not yet clear how much more methane emissions there could be under the Trump proposal, compared to the Biden rules, as the EPA didn’t provide a figure. On its website, though, the agency says that methane traps at least 28 times more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, accounting for 11% of global emissions.
Juan B. Mancias, tribal chairman of the Carrizo Comecrudo Nation of Texas (Esto’k Gna), also opposes the changes. In public comments to the EPA, he asked the agency to “retain effective methane safeguards.”
“Our ancestral relationship to land is not a commodity to be balanced away solely against industrial operating costs,” Mancias said. “We are the land; its air and waters sustain our people and future generations. EPA must protect those relationships through a defensible, transparent regulatory record.”
Western said that while his agency is easing regulations around emissions, it will still punish wrongdoers.
“This is not a get-out-of-jail-free card for people to just emit pure methane into the atmosphere for days, weeks, or months or years on end,” he said.
The proposal could also eliminate another Biden-era environmental regulation, the Super Emitter Program, which would have required companies to respond to credible reports of major methane leaks.
Those 2024 regulations never went into full effect nationally with the change of administrations, but Colorado became the first state to adopt them in September, according to Colorado Public Radio. The Environmental Defense Fund says Colorado could now cut around 30,000 metric tons of methane from leaking into the atmosphere through 2038.
The public comment period on the proposed changes nationwide goes through Dec. 16.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Boise State Public Radio, Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio and KJZZ in Arizona as well as NPR, with support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
