Trump to Announce Methane Rule Rollback at Lubbock Rally in Texas

Update: Trump announces the methane rollback at Lubbock

Updated 01:07 UTC, Oct. 28, 2026. President Donald Trump announced the methane rollback at his evening rally in Lubbock on Tuesday, formally proposing to scale back methane controls on oil and gas companies. "Tonight, I'm officially terminating Biden's expensive and unnecessary methane regulations," Trump told the crowd. He said the move would save consumers and energy producers 45 billion dollars, unlock vast quantities of Texas natural gas and produce 210 million barrels of oil, according to Reuters reporting on the speech. Bloomberg Law reported that the change remains a proposal, framed by the administration as a way to lower energy costs one week before the midterm elections. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to propose easing regulations for wells that emit large amounts of methane, scrapping the program that identifies large methane leaks and allowing producers to flare more natural gas.

President Donald Trump is expected to announce a proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule rolling back Biden era methane requirements for oil and gas producers during a campaign rally in Lubbock, Texas, on Tuesday, October 27, 2026. Bloomberg reported the plan first, citing an administration official who asked not to be named before a formal announcement. Reuters reported the same plan on Tuesday, citing a White House official. An administration official confirmed the accuracy of the Bloomberg report to the Washington Post.

What the proposal would change

The proposal would roll back requirements that companies replace leak prone equipment and regularly search for escaping methane from wells and other hardware, Reuters reported. It would give relief to small, low output wells, end a program that used outside groups to report large methane leaks, and ease rules aimed at phasing out the routine burning off of gas at oil wells.

The plan singles out marginal, low output wells for additional regulatory relief. The relief extends to wells that produce no more than 15 barrels of oil equivalent per day. About 79 percent of the roughly 1 million oil and gas wells in the United States are considered marginal. Those wells are estimated to produce just 7 percent of the nation's oil and gas but about half of its methane emissions, according to EPA figures cited by the Washington Post.

The Super Emitter Program and the cost claim

The agency would also end the Methane Super Emitter Program, which encouraged government approved third party groups to help find and report large methane releases. The agency already paused the program's implementation last year. It is set to justify the change by questioning the program's necessity and citing legal concerns.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin previewed the proposal on October 7, 2026, at an industry conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico. "This proposal takes on many of the problems American producers and operators have raised with us," Zeldin said in the EPA news release. "That includes the burden on marginal wells and oil and gas operators in general, the Super Emitter Program, associated gas, and control device requirements."

The administration expects the changes to save the oil and gas sector 45 billion dollars while allowing an additional 210 million barrels of oil production and 1.41 trillion cubic feet of natural gas between 2027 and 2050.

The rule it would replace, and the reaction

In 2023 the Biden administration tightened methane regulations for oil and gas. That administration said the rules would prevent 58 million tons of methane from entering the atmosphere between 2024 and 2038, the climate equivalent of taking 28 million gas powered cars off the road for a year.

Jon Goldstein of the Environmental Defense Fund opposed the rollback. "Rolling back these safeguards would mean more wasted energy, more methane pollution and greater health risks for communities living near oil and gas operations," he said in a statement on October 7, 2026.

Why Lubbock, and why Tuesday

Texas is the number one oil producing state in the United States. The Lubbock appearance is intended to boost Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton, who is locked in a close race with Democrat James Talarico. Tuesday marks Trump's third visit to Texas this month for Paxton, with rallies planned in Corpus Christi and Lubbock. The Lubbock rally is at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center at 6 p.m. Central Time. Talarico holds a rally the same night at the Fiesta Center in East Lubbock at 7 p.m. Central Time.