'Terrifying': Leak shows industry plans to tighten methane emissions – if Trump wins

This Common Dreams article is published here as part of the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now.

A key oil and gas industry group has drawn up a plan to repeal Biden-era climate regulations, including methane emissions, according to an investigation published Friday in The Washington Post.

The American Exploration and Production Council, a trade group of 30 oil and gas producers, wants to roll back a number of Biden administration regulations, including the imposition of a methane fee post reported, based on AXPC documents leaked to Fieldnotes, a climate research group.

AXPC represents major oil companies such as ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, whose executives Republican candidate Donald Trump has aggressively solicited donations in his bid to return to the White House and even made a quid pro quo – deregulation in return for $1 billion in campaign funds – during a Gathering at Mar-a-Lago in April.

David Doniger, senior adviser to the NRDC Action Fund, which is affiliated with the Natural Resources Defense Council, told the post that Trump had “promised to fulfill her wishes” and the leaked documents that Doniger reviewed at the newspaper's request revealed her “wish list.”

Paasha Mahdavi, director of the Energy Governance and Political Economy Lab at the University of California, Santa Barbara, noted the comprehensiveness of AXPC's plans, which he also reviewed.

“They want to completely remove climate from the political process,” Mahdavi told the newspaper post. “They want the government to stop regulating climate issues and stop thinking about climate risks.”

Mahdavi said the AXPC documents showed member companies were failing to live up to their own public climate promises.

“They talk a lot about climate ambition while doing something else in their companies,” he said. “If you join the Paris Agreement, you cannot be part of a trade association that is trying to roll back these emissions regulations. These two things are incompatible.”

Elizabeth Kolbert, environmental writer at The New Yorkersaid the plans were not surprising but “still frightening.”

Aspects of AXPC's plans have already been publicly disclosed, including goals to increase production and exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The leaked documents included a confidential survey of member companies that found that nine of the 19 companies that responded had increased methane flaring between 2021 and 2023. Natural gas flaring is a long-established but extremely environmentally harmful disposal method used by the industry. The survey also found that total corporate flaring increased by 20% from 2022 to 2023.

Methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, but its effect does not last as long. Scientists estimate methane emissions are responsible for about 20-30% of global warming since the 17th century – second only to carbon dioxide. Fossil fuels are a major source of these methane emissions, along with modern agricultural practices and other causes.

In March, the Environmental Protection Agency finalized its methane rule, which aims to reduce gas emissions by up to 80% over 14 years. A group of Republican-led states and fossil fuel interests have challenged the rule in federal court. The case is still pending, although the plaintiffs' request for a U.S. Supreme Court injunction on that ruling failed, meaning the regulation remains in effect.

The documents also reveal a number of other orders and regulations that are in the industry's crosshairs. One is a sweeping executive order issued in the first week of the Biden administration to establish a “whole of government” approach to addressing the climate crisis; It includes goals to limit drilling on federal land and decarbonize the electric grid. AXPC is also seeking to reverse an executive order requiring companies to disclose climate-related financial risks.

End the pause on LNG exports?

Other items on the AXPC roadmap include lifting the Biden administration's pause on LNG exports and repealing a rule requiring climate considerations in major infrastructure projects. The group also wants to see an executive order that encourages fossil fuel production.

AXPC spokesman Mark Bednar, who previously worked for then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, said post that “our executive documents make clear that our priorities are the same regardless of who is in the White House.”

But the plan, which contradicts the goals of the Democratic Party, will only be possible if Trump returns to power.

Trump has regularly called oil and gas executives in recent months “to hear their wishes and raise campaign funds,” the president said post reported. As a group, AXPC has not contributed to the Trump campaign, but executives at its member companies are Trump donors and fundraisers.

The International Energy Agency (IEA), which this week released a major report showing that the world's nations are not on track to meet key climate goals, has documented dangerous increases in global methane emissions – which the agency is targeting the fossil fuel industry makes.

At a fundraiser this summer, fossil fuel executives told Trump to push for the replacement of Fatih Birol, the IEA's executive director postciting an anonymous participant.

ExxonMobil distanced itself from the leaked documents and said post that it does not agree with all AXPC positions and that it has greatly reduced its methane emissions and supports the methane fee.

ConocoPhillips did not respond to a request for comment post however, has stated in filings that it supports AXPC's position on methane.