PLEA Network

15 December 2025, Reuters: US demands EU exempt its gas from methane emissions law, document shows. The U.S. has demanded that the European Union exempt its oil and gas from obligations under the bloc’s methane emissions law on fuel imports until 2035, a U.S. government document seen by Reuters showed. Starting this year, the EU requires importers of oil and gas to Europe to monitor and report methane emissions associated with those imports, in a bid to curb emissions of the potent planet-warming gas. The world-first climate policy has faced opposition from U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who has called it impossible to implement and warned it could disrupt U.S. gas supplies to Europe. European countries have increased imports of U.S. liquefied natural gas as they phase out oil and gas from Russia. The U.S. document said that in the absence of a “full repeal” of the EU law, Washington was asking the EU to “delay requiring U.S. emissions data reporting under the EUMR [EU Methane Regulation] until October 2035.” “The EU Methane Regulations is a critical non-tariff trade barrier that imposes an undue burden on U.S. exporters and our trade relationship,” said the document, circulated to EU member governments ahead of a meeting of their energy ministers in Brussels on Monday. Read more here