U.S. officials called on European Union officials to adjust EU gas regulations to ensure that liquefied natural gas shipments that meet current U.S. methane regulations also meet Europe's new gas import standards, according to a letter released on December 19.

On December 17, President Biden's administration sent a second letter to EU Energy Director-General Ditte Juul Jørgensen to accelerate support for its claim that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's regulations should be considered "equivalent" to EU regulations, whose emissions reporting requirements will take effect in 2025.

EU countries passed a law in May to impose methane emissions limits on European oil and gas imports starting in 2030, forcing international suppliers to reduce leaks of the potent greenhouse gas.

Linking U.S. and EU methane standards would safeguard the growing U.S. LNG trade with Europe while also solidifying Biden's tough rules on methane, a potent greenhouse gas, even if they are ultimately repealed by President-elect Donald Trump's new administration.

Goffman co-signed the letter with Brad Crabtree, assistant secretary for the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management at the U.S. Department of Energy. They sent their first letter to the EU in late October, days before the U.S. election.

In the letter to the EU, officials highlighted the regulation's emissions-reducing potential.
They wrote that the EPA methane standard would reduce methane emissions by 58 million metric tons between 2024 and 2038, while the waste discharge fee rule would cumulatively reduce carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by 34 million metric tons by 2035.

Trump, a climate change skeptic and staunch supporter of fossil fuel development, has promised to end the ban on new liquefied natural gas export permits as soon as he returns to the White House on Jan. 20 and has vowed to roll back most of Biden's climate-focused regulations.