Tackling Methane Emissions in America

January 17, 2025 — History finds a way of repeating itself. Although it took nearly the full term to complete (August 2020), President Trump was successfully able to roll back the Obama Administration’s 2016 rule on requirements to monitor methane leaks. Oil and gas stakeholders held mixed sentiments on the effort; on one hand, many large companies advocated for maintaining methane leak monitoring requirements to build public trust and demonstrate their commitment to addressing a gas with significant short-term global warming impacts. On the other hand, small oil and gas companies and others pushed back, claiming the expenses were too great to enact such requirements and remain profitable.