The Environmental Protection Agency is telling some of its staff to stop enforcing violations against oil and gas companies in the U.S., according to reporting from multiple sources.
According to reporting first published by CNN, EPA staffers overseeing the Midwest received verbal instructions to back off enforcement of its emissions rules.
Scripps News has not yet independently verified the reporting.
Th EPA is responsible for rules and standards including those that set limits on methane and benzene levels in the fossil industry, cap emissions from sources like natural gas wells and improve emissions standards to cut down pollution from existing emitters.
But a rollback of such rules would be consistent with the administration's stance on environmental regulation thus far.
RELATED STORY | Trump administration proposes major rollback of Biden-era clean power regulations
Since taking office, President Trump has moved to shutter dozens of climate research offices throughout the government, fire scientists and researchers studying the causes and impacts of climate change, freeze billions of dollars of funding for clean energy and open up millions of acres of previously protected lands for drilling.
In June, the EPA announced plans to eliminate Biden-era regulations limiting the amount of greenhouse gas and other toxic chemical pollution released into the atmosphere by fossil fuel–fired power plants.
The administration also plans to roll back federal restrictions on oil and gas development across millions of acres of Alaskan wilderness in the National Petroleum Reserve, reversing a rule put in place under President Biden in 2024.
