Donald Trump announced at a rally in Lubbock, Texas, that his administration is "repealing" regulations from the Biden era that required oil and gas companies to take responsibility for large methane leaks, a gas that contributes to planetary warming. According to him, the change will save $45 billion for energy consumers and producers.
Trump also stated that the decision will unlock 210 million barrels of oil, which is approximately ten days of US oil consumption. "Tonight I am officially repealing Biden's expensive and unnecessary methane rules to save energy consumers and producers," Trump said. He described the regulations as "paralysing methane rules that caused prices to skyrocket" for small oil and gas operators. The aim of the move is to encourage more domestic drilling as Trump faces criticism over high fuel prices stemming from the US war with Iran.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin praised Trump's move "to end the war on oil and natural gas" by revising oil and natural gas regulations under the Clean Air Act. According to the EPA, the proposed measure should bring $45 billion in savings to consumers and businesses, including small businesses that manage marginal wells. The EPA also estimates that an additional 210 million barrels of oil and 1.41 trillion cubic feet of natural gas will be produced.
Industry associations and corporations worked behind the scenes to dilute methane regulations, according to trade association materials and documents obtained by the organisation Fieldnotes, which monitors the oil and gas industry, via the Freedom of Information Act. The 2024 methane rule required operators to eliminate and minimise methane and hazardous volatile organic compound leaks, flaring and venting. It was the first time the federal government established national requirements to limit methane emissions from existing oil and gas facilities. An earlier rule, completed under the Obama administration in 2016, applied to new and modified sources.
Under the large emitter programme, companies were required to investigate large leaks near oil and gas facilities that third parties detected using EPA-approved remote sensing technology. In March 2025, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced that the agency was reviewing regulations from the Biden-Harris era "to ensure they do not prevent America from unleashing energy dominance and continuing its path as a leader in clean energy and emissions reduction". Last year, the US emitted more methane from its oil and gas sector than any other country in the world. Methane is responsible for at least a quarter of today's warming.
Julia Kane, a researcher at Fieldnotes, said that Trump's EPA is giving oil and gas corporations exactly what they want. "The oil and gas industry says it is a 'well-intentioned' partner eager to help shape regulations, but time and again it works behind the scenes to delay and weaken them," Kane said. Documents obtained by Fieldnotes, including calendar events, presentations and meeting request forms, show that industry groups and companies met with the EPA to discuss methane regulations at least 38 times during the first year of the current administration. "I think that is simply an extraordinary level of access," Kane said.
During a conference call with industry representatives last year, Independent Petroleum Association of America CEO Lee Fuller described a conversation with EPA staff: "It was one of the more interesting meetings we have ever had, just because they were suddenly willing to talk to us. And they were also suddenly willing to talk about things we have been trying to get them to do for years, and they were never allowed to put on the radar."
At Trump's rally in Corpus Christi earlier that day, Trump greeted Harold Hamm, saying that the founder of Continental Resources was in the audience. In April, Continental Resources sent a letter to the EPA opposing measures in the methane regulations that prohibit routine flaring of associated gas. Since the EPA announced in March 2025 that it would no longer enforce oil and gas regulations, oil and gas operators have released, vented or flared natural gas worth $7 billion, according to calculations by the Environmental Defense Fund.
Rosalie Winn, senior director and chief advisor at the Environmental Defense Fund, said that the Trump administration is trying to limit the federal government's ability to do anything about climate pollution in all the largest sectors responsible for emissions. "What this administration is doing is enabling the worst polluters in industry to continue earning more at the expense of American consumers while wasting energy," Winn said.
Speaking in Lubbock, Texas, on Tuesday, Donald Trump announced the repeal of federal rules issued by the Biden administration in 2023 to force oil and gas companies to reduce methane emissions, a "super-polluting" gas that traps heat in the atmosphere. Trump held his rally in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Tuesday with a massive oil tanker, the Angerona, in the background, which the president said had just arrived from Venezuela carrying a personal gift for him: one million barrels of oil.
A senior State Department official told the Associated Press that the US would "issue visas to Flávio Bolsonaro and his family and allow them to enter the United States". In his address to supporters in Lubbock, Texas, Trump attacked James Talarico, the Democratic Senate candidate, for showing sympathy for transgender children who demonstrated for their rights in the Texas state legislature in 2023. Trump falsely claimed that "our gas prices are lower than when Barack Hussein Obama — our oil prices, gas prices, are lower than they were with Obama".
Congressman Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat, posted: "Losing an election is not grounds for asylum. Yet, the Trump administration is giving Flávio Bolsonaro a safe haven in the United States. In Brazil, he is under investigation for alleged corruption, money laundering and tax evasion, and has been ordered to surrender his passports. The Trump administration owes Congress answers about its role in helping Bolsonaro flee Brazil in violation of Brazilian law."
Brazilian journalist Octavio Guedes said that Bolsonaro "is not fleeing a dictatorship". "Flávio Bolsonaro is fleeing a country where he ran freely — a country where his brother is a senator, another brother is a federal deputy, his party has a majority in both houses of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, and his stepmother is a senator. He is fleeing a country where 59 million people went to the polls and voted freely for him. In short, he is fleeing democracy. He is fleeing accountability from the judiciary," Guedes said.
Speaking in defence of his presidential mandate in Lubbock, Texas, on Tuesday, Donald Trump reiterated that his war with Iran was necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, despite US intelligence assessments.
