Hickenlooper: “The Trump administration is pushing policies that will allow more pollutants into our air. That’s not leadership. It’s shortsighted.”
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper released the following statement following reports that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will propose changes that weaken federal methane rules for oil and gas operations.
“The Trump administration is pushing policies that will allow more pollutants into our air. That’s not leadership. It’s shortsighted,” said Hickenlooper. “As governor, we brought the energy industry and environmentalists together to monitor methane leaks, cut pollution, and protect our clean air. This administration is hell-bent on doing the opposite. We’ll keep standing up for our environment and the air we all breathe.”
The EPA will reportedly announce plans to overhaul Biden-era standards requiring oil and gas facilities to monitor for and repair methane leaks. The proposed changes are expected to weaken pollution safeguards, including monitoring requirements for smaller, older wells that produce relatively little oil and gas but account for a disproportionate share of methane emissions.
As governor, Hickenlooper brought environmentalists and the energy industry together to create the world’s first methane regulations in 2014. Between 2010 and 2017, those rules reduced methane emissions from Colorado’s oil and gas sector by 70%.
As senator, Hickenlooper has championed stronger federal methane rules modeled on Colorado’s. In 2021, he led members of the Colorado congressional delegation in urging the EPA to strengthen methane regulations for the oil and gas sector. He helped negotiate and pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which created a $4.7 billion federal program to plug orphaned wells on Federal, State, and Tribal lands. President Trump froze these funds in March 2025, though some of the funds have been subsequently released.
Hickenlooper has repeatedly pressed the EPA to improve methane emissions tracking and celebrated $162.3 million in loan guarantees from the Inflation Reduction Act to support the installation of a real time methane emissions monitoring network across Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, North Dakota, and New Mexico.
###