Trump to roll back methane rules in latest Texas campaign push

President Donald Trump will ​use a campaign swing through Texas on ​Tuesday to announce a plan to ease ‌methane rules ​for oil and gas producers, seeking to show voters he is working to bring down gasoline prices a week before the midterm elections.

The move is ‌the latest in a string of pre-election steps by Trump to address fuel prices, which have become a political liability for Republicans amid the war with Iran. By pairing the methane rollback with rallies for his hand-picked Senate candidate Ken ‌Paxton, Trump is trying to turn energy policy into votes in a longtime Republican stronghold. The trip marks ‌Trump's third visit to Texas this month to mobilize support for Paxton, with rallies planned in Corpus Christi and Lubbock. Paxton is locked in a close race with Democrat James Talarico, and a loss next Tuesday would complicate the Republican Party's path to retaining its ⁠slim Senate ​majority.

Trump plans to announce an ⁠Environmental Protection Agency proposal to roll back Biden-era rules that required companies to fix leaky equipment and regularly check wells for escaping methane, ⁠a potent greenhouse gas, a White House official said. The administration is casting it as a way to produce more ​energy and lower costs. The plan would give relief to small, low-output wells and end a program that used ⁠outside groups to report large methane leaks, the official said. It would also ease rules aimed at phasing out the routine burning off ⁠of ​gas at oil wells.

Trump's repeated trips to Texas are part of a broader push in Republican-leaning states, which were expected to be safely in hand but have instead become midterm battlegrounds. His October campaign blitz ⁠has also taken him to Oklahoma, Alabama, Nebraska, Iowa, Ohio, South Carolina and Mississippi. Trump has publicly criticized his longtime ⁠ally, calling Paxton "a pain in ⁠the ass sometimes," while making it clear he prefers him to Talarico. Tech billionaire Elon Musk and other donors are pouring hundreds of millions into a late ‌effort to rescue Paxton's ‌campaign.