How EU methane rules came under pressure from Trump and industry

EU ambassadors are due to try for a third time on Friday, 6 November, to agree whether to delay methane rules for oil and gas imports by one year or three. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, and capturing it is one of the “quickest and cheapest ways to curb global greenhouse gas emissions,” according to the International Energy Agency.

The Commission’s efforts to manage opposition are detailed in 55 documents released by its energy department following a freedom of information request from climate research group ARIA and shared with EUobserver. The files include briefings, speeches and emails covering dealings with US officials and industry from March 2025 to May 2026. Trump officials and industry groups had publicly and repeatedly attacked the rules. The documents show the Commission responding largely with technical fixes, even after, according to the article, it had become clear the administration wanted the rules scrapped.

A warm welcome in Pittsburgh

In late February, the Commission’s top energy official, Ditte Juul Jørgensen, attended a Pittsburgh summit co-hosted by US gas lobby group LNG Allies. Her keynote celebrated a decade of transatlantic gas trade, recalling the first US liquefied natural gas cargo to Europe, which sailed from Louisiana aboard the Creole Spirit. She called the ship’s name “a most fitting” symbol of Louisiana’s energy heritage and a new transatlantic partnership.

Jørgensen later joined a panel on the EU methane rules with US gas lobbyists. LNG Allies subsequently said she had “captured the spirit of the Transatlantic LNG Partnership perfectly” and called her “a true friend of US LNG” who “graciously accepted nearly every speaking invitation we extended”.

She has been the Commission’s top energy official since 2019, guiding the EU through the Russian gas crisis and a more than fivefold rise in US LNG imports. By the time of the Pittsburgh event, she and her team were already seeking to counter a multipronged campaign against the methane rules by the US oil and gas industry and an increasingly hostile Trump administration.