The New York Times, on Climate, 27 October 2026

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E.P.A. to Loosen Methane Rules for Oil Firms

No framing issues found.

The Trump administration is set to loosen rules designed to force oil and gas companies to cut their emissions of methane, a gas considered a “super pollutant” because it traps so much heat in the atmosphere. President Trump is expected to announce the plan at a Tuesday campaign rally in Texas with Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton, according to two administration officials who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The move would mark one of the most significant steps by the Trump administration to scale back federal policies designed to tackle climate change. Methane, the main component of natural gas, traps about 80 times more heat in the atmosphere in the short term than carbon dioxide does. It is responsible for nearly one-third of the rise in global temperatures since the start of the Industrial Revolution, and experts have said that reducing methane leaks is one of the fastest ways to slow global warming.

The Biden administration issued rules in 2023 that would have required oil and gas facilities to monitor their operations and prevent methane from leaking into the atmosphere. The Trump administration has already delayed those rules from taking effect . Now the Environmental Protection Agency is moving to relax requirements to curb methane emissions from hundreds of thousands of “marginal” oil and gas wells that are nearing the end of their useful lives and have relatively low output.

These wells account for around 7 percent of U.S. oil and gas production but produce roughly half of the industry’s methane emissions, the agency has previously said. We are having trouble retrieving the article content. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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About this analysis

The New York Times reports that the Trump administration, through the E.P.A., is set to loosen methane rules for oil and gas companies, including relaxed requirements for low-output marginal wells. It explains in its own voice why methane matters for warming and attributes its figures to the agency. Nothing in the article misleads its reader.

What it gets right

  • “It is responsible for nearly one-third of the rise in global temperatures since the start of the Industrial Revolution”

    The Times states methane's role in global warming as fact in its own voice, with no hedge on the basic science.

  • “traps about 80 times more heat in the atmosphere in the short term than carbon dioxide does”

    The article gives the reader a concrete measure of why methane rules matter, so the policy change is not presented as a dry regulatory tweak.

  • “These wells account for around 7 percent of U.S. oil and gas production but produce roughly half of the industry’s methane emissions, the agency has previously said.”

    The figure shows what the relaxed rules for marginal wells actually cover and is attributed to the agency itself, so the reader sees the scale of the emissions affected.

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