Trump drastically loosens Biden-era methane rules to ‘save $45 billion’ — why is the gas so dangerous?

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his administration is “terminating” a Biden-era rule that aimed to cut planet-warming emissions of methane from oil and gas drilling.

Trump said during a campaign rally in Texas that the change would save companies and consumers billions of dollars and unlock 210 million barrels of oil. That’s equivalent to about 10 days of US petroleum consumption, according to the Associated Press.

Trump, campaigning for Texas Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton, claimed that Biden's plan “crushed the small operators” with crippling regulations.

“I’m officially terminating Biden’s expensive and unnecessary methane regulations to save consumers and energy producers $45 billion in costs,” Trump said at an evening campaign rally in Lubbock, Texas.

To cheers from the crowd, Trump added that the move would "unlock vast quantities of Texas natural gas." Texas is by far the country's leading fossil-fuel-producing state.

He framed the move, which is still a proposal, as a way to lower energy costs in a bid to address voter affordability concerns ahead of next week’s midterm elections.

The loosening of the emissions rule comes as Trump and Republicans in Congress have been methodically dismantling climate policies enacted under former President Joe Biden.

That's included the revocation of a scientific finding that was central to US action on greenhouse gas emissions, lower fuel economy standards for vehicles and a move to repeal emission restrictions for coal and natural gas power plants.

Why is methane called greenhouse gas super pollutant? Why controlling its emission important?

Methane is responsible for about a third of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, scientists estimate. It contributes to ground-level ozone and pollution, which is harmful to human health.

Oil and gas operations are the largest industrial source of methane, which is the main component in natural gas and far more potent to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide in the short term.

Over 60% of methane emissions come from human activity, most of which stem from three sectors: Agriculture (about 40%), Fossil fuels (about 35%), waste (about 20%).

The fossil fuel sector (oil, gas, and coal) offers the largest potential for fast and affordable methane cuts, according to the UN.

Methane, the main component of natural gas, traps about 80 times more heat in the atmosphere in the short term than carbon dioxide does. It lasts about 12 years in the atmosphere, while carbon dioxide can last hundreds of years.

It is responsible for nearly one-third of the rise in global temperatures since the start of the Industrial Revolution, and experts told the New York Times that reducing methane leaks is one of the fastest ways to slow global warming.

Under the right conditions, methane gas can migrate into water wells along with the groundwater. High concentrations of methane in water wells can accumulate in confined spaces and act as an asphyxiant or become flammable.

The United States is the world's leading emitter of methane from its oil and gas sector, followed by Russia, according to the International Energy Agency.

What does Trump aim to do?

According to AFP, the changes take aim at rules to curb methane emissions from oil and gas operations. Emissions occur at every stage, from extracting gas held underground, to processing, transmission and distribution.

The new changes include proposing to kill off the "Super Emitter Program," a provision that allows EPA-approved observers to report major leaks with a rate of over 100 kilograms (220 pounds) per hour, the report added.

Another will weaken regulation against so-called "marginal wells" that produce 15 barrels or less of oil equivalent a day. Yet another will relax rules around the routine flaring of "associated gas."

The move aims to encourage more domestic drilling as Trump faces criticism over high fuel prices amid the war in Iran.

Cuts in methane emissions have emerged in recent years as a global priority to slow the rate of climate change.

The invisible gas leaks from equipment and is released into the atmosphere or burned off as a waste product by oil drillers.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin previewed the changes last month, saying they would eliminate the agency’s “Super Emitter Program” that requires companies to investigate and repair major methane releases from oil and natural gas facilities.

The agency would also set less restrictive standards for small oil and gas wells.

‘Free pass to companies’

Environmental groups said the latest rollback will let companies continue polluting the atmosphere with gas that could be captured and provide energy to millions of households.

Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp said it gives a “free pass” to companies at the expense of American consumers.

“EPA should be fighting this waste, not making it easier,” he said.

Zeldin has said the methane rule would have cost $18 billion and was holding back the US energy industry.

Biden methane rule

The Biden methane rule was announced by officials including former Vice President Kamala Harris during a 2023 U.N. climate conference in the United Arab Emirates.

Federal officials under Biden said it would prevent an estimated 58 million tons (52.6 million metric tonnes) of methane emissions by 2038 and reduce other pollutants that cause health problems.

By 2034, the rule was projected to yield $98 billion in benefits. That figure was derived by calculating the future “social costs” of greenhouse gas emissions on public health and the environment, an approach rejected by Trump's EPA.

While previous regulations focused only on new oil and gas wells in the U.S., the Biden rule regulated existing wells. Operators also would have needed to plug leaking methane from smaller wells that produce just 6% of the nation’s oil and gas while accounting for up to half of all methane emissions from oil and gas fields.

The final rule was published in 2024. The EPA last year imposed an 18-month delay to give companies time to meet new inspection requirements and other provisions.

The rule was crafted to be coordinated with a methane fee, approved in the 2022 climate law. The fee program would have levied a “waste emissions charge” of as much as $1,500 per metric ton of methane on energy producers that exceed a certain level of methane emissions.

The fee marked the first time the U.S. government directly imposed a fee, or tax, on greenhouse gas emissions. Congress repealed it weeks after Trump took office.

Officials also tried to rein in methane from oil and gas under former President Barack Obama, but that effort was scaled back during Trump's first term.

How much methane can we really cut?

Accoridng to UNEP, human-caused methane emissions could be reduced by as much as 45 per cent within the decade.

This would avert nearly 0.3°C of global warming by 2045, helping to limit global temperature rise to 1.5˚C and putting the planet on track to achieve the Paris Agreement targets.

Every year, the subsequent reduction in ground-level ozone would also prevent 260,000 premature deaths, 775,000 asthma-related hospital visits, 73 billion hours of lost labour from extreme heat and 25 million tonnes of crop losses.