Call your Member of the House of Representatives and your Senators today and urge them to block the Trump EPA Rule that delays protections against oil and gas methane pollution. This is a justice issue with environmental, healthcare, and economic impacts.
This Trump Administration EPA rule delays the 2024 oil and gas methane standards and thus allows more industrial pollution rather than quickly implementing commonsense standards to full effect. A dozen health, environment and community groups have filed a motion in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit asking that court to require those commonsense standards to be in place in the timing originally required.
The groups’ motion objects to the secrecy with which EPA established its Delay Rule, pointing out that the agency offered no opportunity for public input before that rule became effective, in clear violation of the law:
EPA’s action substantially delays compliance dates under a final Clean Air Act rule the agency issued in 2024 … which provides critical protections against some of the nation’s largest sources of air pollution. The Delay Rule thereby increases harms to public health and damage to the climate — yet does so summarily, without prior notice and public comment as the [law requires]. For this reason the Delay Rule is blatantly illegal.
The 2024 methane standards reduced pollution through commonsense steps like requiring leak detection and repairs. Proven and cost-effective solutions are available today to help oil and gas operators meet the standards that protect our climate and health while also reducing monetary losses and waste. Both large and independent producers have gone on record in support of federal methane regulation and major oil and gas producing states including Colorado, Wyoming, Pennsylvania and New Mexico have already been implementing the standards. If you are a resident of Texas, ask that your representatives call on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to implement these standards immediately.
In spite of all that, the Trump EPA decided to delay requirements that companies comply with the new source standards for as long as 18 months – even though the standards have been in place protecting Americans for more than a year now – and delayed the deadline for states to submit plans to reduce emission from existing sources by 10 months.
“The Trump administration has yet again displayed its contempt for the law, this time ignoring the requirement for public input and hastily issuing a rule that gives the oil and gas industry a pass to pollute, harm our health, and degrade our environment,” said Alexandra Schluntz, senior attorney at nonprofit environmental law organization Earthjustice.
The Biden administration’s 2024 rule sought to reduce emissions of methane and other pollutants by requiring the oil and natural gas industry to reduce leaks and replace devices called process controllers with newer, zero-emission devices, among other measures.
Compliance with those rules—which came into effect in May 2024—has now been pushed back 18 months, until January 2027.
The move, known as an “interim final rule,” also delays the implementation of a program that would allow EPA-approved third parties to report potential large leaks and releases, and extends the deadline for states to submit plans for reducing methane emissions from existing sources.
Critics questioned the need for the delay, arguing that compliance in the industry was already largely underway.
Delaying implementation will simply give a handout to the worst actors who would be able to continue their polluting ways with zero consequences or accountability to neighboring communities.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, and although it has a shorter atmospheric lifespan than carbon dioxide, it has a warming effect 86 times stronger than CO2 over a 20-year period and 28 times stronger over a 100-year period, according to the Climate and Clean Air Coalition.
According to the International Energy Agency, methane is responsible for about one-third of the rise in global temperatures since the industrial revolution.
Even by the EPA’s own estimates, the deadline extension is expected to have a significant impact on the amount of harmful emissions released by the oil and gas industry.
According to the agency’s fact sheet for the interim final rule, an additional 3.8 million tons of methane are expected to be emitted from 2028-2038 as a result of the interim final rule — equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions from nearly 25 million gasoline-powered passenger vehicles driven for one year.
That’s on top of an additional 960,000 tons of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and 36,000 tons of toxic air pollutants that will be emitted due to the extension.
What to do:
Make your voice heard by reaching out to your elected representative and senators urging them to speak out against this delay.
If EPA does open public comment, use these talking points to make your case in written testimony.
Write letters to the editor and op-eds on this subject.
Vote for sensible climate actions at the ballot box.