Trump EPA Methane Official Authored Industry's Own Argument Against the Rules He Now Oversees

A senior Trump administration official tasked with rolling back methane pollution regulations was the hidden author of the oil and gas industry's key legal argument against those same rules. Aaron Szabo, an assistant administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is identified in the metadata of a 2022 industry comment letter as its creator. The letter, submitted by the American Exploration and Production Council (AXPC), aggressively objected to proposed EPA controls on methane emissions from oil and gas operations.

The document's metadata reveals Szabo as the author, though his name is absent from the public-facing letter. At the time of drafting, Szabo was a registered lobbyist for Ovintiv, a member of the AXPC, which represents major methane emitters like ConocoPhillips and Hilcorp. This places him in the extraordinary position of having crafted the industry's opposition to regulations he is now officially responsible for weakening from within the EPA.

The situation presents a stark case of regulatory capture, raising immediate questions about conflicts of interest and the integrity of the rulemaking process. It signals that the industry's lobbying arguments have been directly internalized at the highest levels of the agency meant to regulate it. This development intensifies scrutiny on the EPA's current efforts to relax methane standards and could fuel legal challenges alleging the process was improperly influenced by former industry advocates now in government.