EPA’s Methane Rule Rollback Would Give Free Pass to Polluters
On October 27, 2026 at a rally in Texas, President Trump announced that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would begin a rollback of the 2024 Methane Rule. Issued by the Biden Administration, the Methane Rule set national standards to reduce methane emissions from sources like oil and gas development, helping us mitigate climate change while also reducing air pollution. The Trump Administration already delayed enforcing this rule in 2025 and is now moving to further weaken these critical standards. Protect PT strongly opposes this repeal and will advocate for EPA’s maintenance and quick implementation of the Methane Rule.
As written, the rule would require oil and gas companies to eliminate routine flaring and replace outdated process controllers with zero-polluting equipment. It would also establish a program to address emissions from super-emitter events and require operators to regularly find and fix leaky equipment.
This rollback would continue to allow flaring, get rid of the Super Emitter Program, and exempt low-producing wells from leak monitoring – even though these wells are highly leaky and polluting.
Rolling back these safeguards will harm communities like ours living closest to oil and gas production, locking-in continued, unnecessary exposure to dangerous air pollution for years to come. When methane is emitted from oil and gas operations, dangerous air pollutants escape too. This includes smog-forming volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxides, and chemicals like benzene, toluene, and xylene. Benzene is a known carcinogen linked to leukemia and other blood cell cancers. Toluene exposure can lead to headaches, dizziness, nausea, and depression.
These factors mean that oil and gas production was responsible for $77 billion in annual health costs according to a 2023 Environmental Research: Health study. If the current administration truly wants to “Make America Healthy Again,” slashing methane regulations is not the way. Leak detection and venting and flaring controls save lives. These are common sense policies that benefit both our local communities and oil and gas workers.
Methane is also an extremely powerful greenhouse gas — more than 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year timeframe — that traps significantly more heat in the atmosphere and accelerates climate change right away. It is crucial, for the wellbeing of generations to come, to start reducing methane emissions now.
We know that methane pollution protections are popular with Americans. Polling shows that support is widespread and bipartisan, with more than two-thirds of voters in oil and gas producing states supporting efforts to swiftly enact stronger standards on methane emissions from oil and gas development to protect the air we breathe. During the development of the Methane Rule, the Federal Register received over 900,000 comments in support. This is because no matter where we live or what political party we align with, we all want clean air and a safe, liveable future.
Weakening these safeguards now would override the will of the people in order to give a free pass to polluters. Here at Protect PT, we will urge the EPA to maintain this rule, and we will continue to fiercely advocate for stronger methane protections in Pennsylvania and beyond.
Please join us by participating in the EPA’s public comment period for this proposed rollback. EPA will hold a virtual public hearing starting at 10am on Monday, November 16th, where you will have up to 4 minutes to share your story and opposition to this rollback. Register here by November 10th.
You can also submit written comments until December 16, 2026.
