methane-leaking stripper – A new EPA push led by Aaron Szabo is poised to weaken methane rules that target “stripper wells” — low-producing wells that leak large amounts of methane. The shift would directly benefit oil billionaire Jeffery Hildebrand, a major Trump donor whose Hilcorp bu
It was before dawn on a Friday in January when a Gulfstream G600 with the burnt-orange Texas Longhorns logo on its tail landed at Dulles airport outside Washington, D.C. Its owner had been summoned to the White House.
Jeffery Hildebrand, a little-known oil billionaire, arrived with a small circle of energy executives. By mid-afternoon, he was in the East Room, just three seats from President Donald Trump.
Trump had recently ordered a military raid that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Now he wanted Hildebrand and two dozen other energy executives to commit to investing $100 billion in Venezuela’s decrepit oil industry.
Many of the executives tempered their enthusiasm. ExxonMobil’s CEO said Venezuela was “uninvestable” without changes to its legal system. The head of ConocoPhillips said he wanted U.S. government financing.
Hildebrand’s approach was different. He leaned toward a microphone in a halting voice and said, “Hilcorp is fully committed and ready to go to rebuilding the infrastructure in Venezuela.”
“That’s good,” Trump replied. “You’ll be very happy.”
The meeting was one moment in a relationship Hildebrand has worked to cultivate—one that is now moving methane policy in his favor.
Hildebrand is the founder and owner of Hilcorp, a privately held company known for buying up older, low-producing “stripper wells.” Those wells are a central focus of the methane rollback effort now taking shape inside the Environmental Protection Agency.
Hildebrand’s business depends on stripper wells. And stripper wells are tied to some of the most consequential methane pollution in the U.S. Methane is a greenhouse gas that can trap 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide.
Hildebrand. long described as one of the oil industry’s top polluters. had never been a leading political contributor—until the Biden administration tightened methane rules. In 2024. those restrictions imposed steep costs on Hilcorp. and the once-obscure tycoon became one of Trump’s biggest oil industry supporters. giving millions to his campaign.
Trump has since named a former Hilcorp lobbyist to a top post at the EPA—tasking him with unraveling methane rules with the help of trade groups backed by Hildebrand. The result, the story around this rollback suggests, is a sweeping reprieve for the nation’s 700,000 stripper wells. The political benefit would land with Hildebrand and others in the business model he built. The climate costs would be borne by the wider public.
Stripper wells collectively contribute just 6% of the nation’s oil and natural gas. But studies have identified them as the source of roughly half the sector’s methane emissions, partly because they are thinly monitored, run-down, and prone to leaking.
Because of that, the wells play an outsized role in climate change, amplifying heat waves, droughts and wildfires.
Andrew Logan of Ceres, a climate advocacy group, put the tradeoff in blunt terms: “If you could lose 6% of production and cut emissions in half, who wouldn’t make that trade?” He added that it comes down to “who benefits and who doesn’t, and who has the power.”
The methane problem is often invisible—literally. It’s also frequently sudden.
Last August, Kendra Pinto and Josh Eisenfeld drove a rented Dodge Ram to a Hilcorp well in San Juan County, New Mexico. They were infrared camera operators with the nonprofit Earthworks and spent their days tracking leaks at remote sites.
The well they investigated was identified as Hilcorp’s Huerfano Unit 119 well, one of the company’s 11,000 wells in the region. The site was unassuming: gravel, two unmarked storage tanks, and what oil workers call a Christmas tree—the cluster of valves that caps the well itself—drilled in 1969.
It produced a small but steady trickle of natural gas, enough to generate around $50 of revenue per day.
On paper, Hilcorp’s record looked clean. According to New Mexico’s oil regulator, Hilcorp had not reported any “venting” from the well since May 2024.
But at the site, a wire fence surrounded equipment, and the caution sign on it read: “Well vents randomly.”
On June 29, last year, a satellite detected a massive methane plume erupting from the location. Carbon Mapper, a nonprofit described as a NASA partner, identified the discharge at 199 kilograms an hour—about 12 times the volume of natural gas the well typically produces over that time.
Scientists said the cause of “super-emitter” events is often neglect or malfunction, if not an intentional release. Most last a couple of hours, but some can go on for weeks. Super-emitter plumes have also been identified at other Hilcorp wells.
Pinto and Eisenfeld also observed smaller, more persistent leaks. When they aimed their infrared camera at one of the storage tanks, they saw wispy clouds streaming from a pressure-release valve.
Eisenfeld stopped mid-thought as he watched. “That shouldn’t just be constantly …” he said.
Of the eight Hilcorp wells he and Pinto visited that day, seven were seen to be leaking.
Hilcorp disputed the implications. In response to a detailed list of questions from ProPublica. Hilcorp spokesperson Nick Piatek said in an email that the Huerfano Unit 119 well “is fully compliant with state and federal regulations” and that the company inspects the site monthly. He also argued that Hilcorp’s approach causes less environmental harm than drilling new wells: “By extending and optimizing the life of existing assets with pre-built infrastructure. our model limits the need for new development elsewhere.” He said the company was “proud” of its recent efforts to reduce emissions.
Hilcorp is hardly the only operator tied to methane releases. The U.S. oil and gas system is vast, aging, and often left to police itself. Of the country’s roughly 1 million active wells. more than two-thirds are stripper wells. each producing the equivalent of up to 15 barrels a day—and many produce less than a single barrel a day. Newer wells can pump 1,000 a day or more.
Each well site is packed with valves, flanges and other fittings that can leak unless inspected regularly. Some components are designed to vent small amounts of gas, a legacy of an era when methane’s role in global warming wasn’t widely understood.
When methane reaches the atmosphere directly, it becomes a much more powerful climate pollutant. Methane is responsible for one-third of the rise in global temperatures since the Industrial Revolution.
In part because capturing methane isn’t always cost-effective, companies often burn it off or vent it. Federal rules have allowed these practices at wells drilled before 2012, which include the overwhelming majority of stripper wells.
Even so, methane leakage is widely assumed in the calculations companies provide to the EPA. A study led by Evan Sherwin of Stanford and published in Nature in 2024 measured close to a million observations and found that true figures were. on average. nearly three times higher. The study said companies have never had to report super-emitter events to the EPA. In one region, it found nearly 10% of all natural gas produced was lost to the atmosphere.
That is why the debate over rollback is so consequential. Unlike carbon dioxide, methane breaks down in about a dozen years. Halting the releases can bring a relatively swift payoff.
Rob Jackson. a Stanford researcher. described methane as “the best lever we have to slow the march of climate change in our lifetime. ” especially as the planet approaches tipping points where forests. coral reefs and ice sheets start to collapse irreversibly. Jackson said technologies to curb emissions from oil and gas are already viable and fairly cheap. calling it “the best bang for our buck.”.
For Hildebrand, the rollback is not theoretical. It ties directly to his political leverage and the way his company profits.
Hildebrand, reported by Bloomberg to have amassed a fortune estimated at $15 billion, has stayed unusually low-profile for a billionaire. At 67, he has mostly avoided speaking to reporters and did not respond to multiple interview requests from ProPublica—even after being invited to the White House.
When Trump was reached on his cellphone by ProPublica, the president sounded unsure of Hildebrand’s precise role. “I hear he does a good job,” Trump said.
Hildebrand’s influence shows up differently—inside wealthy business circles and Republican power networks. He has been known to hold exclusive parties at his 1. 200-acre ranch in Aspen. Colorado. which used to belong. in part. to John Denver. He also owns a polo team called Tonkawa in Wellington, Florida, near Mar-a-Lago.
Videos from a 2021 polo match show Hildebrand riding in a white helmet and forest-green jersey while attempting to keep the ball from Andrey Borodin, described as a Russian banker.
Those close to Hildebrand describe a contrast between the polluter and the public story he sometimes tries to live as—God-fearing. charitable. focused on wildlife. Stuart Stedman and Karen Starr Hunke. fellow board members at Texas A&M’s Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute. said they never heard him mention climate change.
In a rare speech in 2022, Hildebrand accepted an award as a distinguished alumnus at UT Austin. He cited an old quote he interpreted as a celebration of the oil industry: “Smite the rocks with the rod of knowledge. and fountains of unstinted wealth will gush forth.” He also quipped that “in this Green New Deal era we live in. ” referencing Democrats’ climate agenda.
Hildebrand was born in 1959 in Houston. He graduated high school as oil prices were soaring. studied geology and petroleum engineering at UT Austin. and was in the Kappa Alpha fraternity. He worked briefly for Exxon and other companies. including that of Jack Trotter. before starting Hilcorp in ’89 with Trotter’s backing.
Hildebrand’s personal mythology includes risk: in one account. he used his wife’s car as collateral for a loan to drill early wells. He told the story as part of his induction into the Texas Business Hall of Fame. He said the wells turned out to be “dry holes” but argued the return on Melinda’s investment would be “infinite.”.
Stripper wells were a niche he helped make lucrative. As a well ages and reservoir pressure drops, production declines. Acquiring aging well packages is relatively cheap. But profits depend on cutting costs.
Clark Williams-Derry of the nonprofit Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis described the approach as the “dung beetle model.” Activists and critics say costs are often cut by “playing fast and loose with environmental rules.”
As Hildebrand expanded into other states using debt to make larger acquisitions, ProPublica said regulators’ records show dozens of violations over the past decade.
One example highlighted: after a Hilcorp natural gas pipeline ruptured in Alaska’s Cook Inlet in December 2016, it spewed methane for nearly four months until repaired. Activists have dubbed the company “Spillcorp.”
The penalties, critics say, have often been small. Matt Bernstein of Rystad Energy said the amounts could be “operating costs.”
What separated Hildebrand from other “dung beetles,” according to the reporting, was that he also found ways to squeeze more production out of aging wells by cutting costs and increasing revenue.
His secret. he has described as a “pretty simple” formula: recruit top geologists and engineers by offering Wall Street-style incentives. allowing them to take partnership stakes in projects. A person involved in an early deal. who spoke on condition of anonymity. told the publication that Hildebrand offered 1.1 times what Hilcorp’s own analysis said a deal was worth. betting on “the magic” of his team.
The 2010s brought international climate pledges. including the Paris Agreement on global warming and a pledge by a major oil company to effectively zero emissions. None of it slowed Hildebrand’s push toward aging wells. In 2017. he spent $3 billion to make his largest acquisition yet: ConocoPhillips’ operation in the San Juan Basin. where Pinto and Eisenfeld later found so many leaks.
Soon after, Clean Air Task Force analysis based on data companies reported to the EPA found that Hilcorp became the No. 1 methane emitter in the entire U.S. oil and gas industry.
The first serious threat to this business came under President Joe Biden.
Biden’s climate agenda drove EPA rules aimed at cutting methane pollution from oil and gas operations by 80%. The rules targeted stripper wells directly for the first time beyond a patchwork of state regulations. The proposal would require regular leak inspections and limit venting and flaring at older wells. It would require companies to respond to satellite reports of super-emitters and make repairs. It also imposed a fee on excess methane emissions. which the oil and gas industry was estimated to pay as much as $500 million a year.
The Department of Justice also moved. One case alleged Hilcorp failed to capture emissions when it redrilled 145 wells in the San Juan. Don Schreiber, a rancher who documented some of the events, described hearing a “jet engine” sound as the gas rushed into the air.
Hilcorp did not admit wrongdoing but settled for $9.4 million.
As the rules phased in, Hildebrand reportedly made parallel bets. Hilcorp upgraded aging equipment, and methane numbers declined.
Lesley Feldman of the Clean Air Task Force said the reductions were a “win” and that it showed policy was working, citing evidence of other companies following suit.
But Feldman questioned the magnitude. Hilcorp’s spokesperson said methane had fallen by nearly 80% in recent years. Feldman said the decline was inflated by reporting changes, making comparisons misleading. She also said the data might be suspect because the EPA had yet to publicly verify it—and because Hilcorp had previously revised its reported emissions upward.
Even if methane were down, Hilcorp remained among the top emitters.
So Hildebrand’s second bet turned political.
Since 2020. Hildebrand and his wife have given more than $15 million to Trump and other Republicans in federal races. placing them among the top donors in an industry that overwhelmingly supports the president and his party. That was contrasted with just over $3 million across the previous two decades.
Recipients included Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. August Pfluger, both of Texas—two prominent opponents of the methane fee, which they call the “natural gas tax.”
During the 2024 campaign, Hildebrand co-hosted at least three high-dollar fundraisers for Trump. One was a dinner near his Aspen ranch at a home with art by Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst and Jack Pierson. The home belonged to investor John Phelan, who would briefly serve as Trump’s Navy secretary.
Hildebrand co-hosted two fundraisers in Houston. One was reportedly planned at Hildebrand’s own home but was moved to a hotel owned by Tilman Fertitta. who would later be named ambassador to Italy. The other fundraiser was followed by a private roundtable where. according to Teofilo Lingi. oil executives discussed the methane rules with Trump himself.
The rollback itself moved quickly once power shifted.
At an earlier event with Trump, Hildebrand said, “I’m really here today to represent the independent energy companies, the family-owned businesses that are in this industry.”
The reporting described that image as clashing with an industry where the independents are organized into lobbying groups. with Hildebrand belonging to multiple. Hilcorp CEO Greg Lalicker sits on the board of the American Exploration and Production Council. which also represents Diversified. the country’s single largest owner of stripper wells. The reporting also says that until recently. another Hilcorp executive was a director at the Independent Petroleum Association of America. which represents smaller producers.
Joseph Goffman, who held top EPA roles under both President Barack Obama and Biden, said independents typically didn’t want to be regulated but knew that argument was losing.
Hildebrand received what the reporting described as an early sign of change when. less than three weeks after the 2025 inauguration. Trump tapped Hildebrand’s wife to be ambassador to Costa Rica. The reporting notes she was primarily known for charity work and for opening a doughnut shop in their wealthy Houston neighborhood of River Oaks. Melinda Hildebrand did not respond to requests for comment. When Trump was asked by ProPublica why he appointed her. the president said. “I don’t know. because you know. I get recommendations. … I see the list of people, but we only name good people, and I’m sure she’s very good.”.
Later that month, the Republican-controlled Congress effectively killed the methane fee. Trump nominated Aaron Szabo, a former Hilcorp lobbyist, to oversee EPA climate regulations.
Szabo, described as an otherwise inconspicuous former bureaucrat, helped unite networks with overlapping ambitions. The reporting says Szabo had already helped draft a letter from AXPC opposing the new methane rules. It also says he became a fellow at the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute and advised on climate regulations for the EPA chapter of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. That chapter recommended dismantling the program addressing super-emitters.
Now tasked with rewriting the methane rules. Szabo sought input from oil industry groups including AXPC. the IPAA and the National Stripper Well Association. according to interviews. records of closed-door conversations. and agency emails and calendar entries obtained through public records requests by the watchdog group Fieldnotes and shared with ProPublica.
Patrick Montalban. the NSWA chair. told ProPublica that it was “the first time in 20 years of my business that they’ll even answer the phone.” He described an informal atmosphere and said he met with Szabo. as well as EPA chief Lee Zeldin. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright. He said Wright and both served on boards of another oil industry group. Press offices for Interior and Energy did not respond to emails seeking comment.
Lee Fuller of the IPAA described a private call in glowingly personal terms, saying EPA staff brought up separate methane rules for stripper wells unprompted. Later, the IPAA asked for stripper wells to be exempted from the methane rules entirely.
Hilcorp spokesperson Piatek declined to answer questions about the influence campaign.
The IPAA declined to comment but sent an email pointing to a recent statement of support for deregulating stripper wells that nodded toward “our shared environmental goals.”
At the center of the rollback argument is cost.
IPAA lawyer James D. Elliott wrote to EPA officials last year that “Venting and flaring are essential for the survivability of low production wells.” He cited estimates that the methane rules would force 300. 000 of the lowest-producing wells to shut down. He framed it as a blow to small-business owners and did not acknowledge that it would have almost no impact on U.S. energy supply.
AXPC declined to answer questions about its interactions with Szabo but sent a statement from AXPC CEO Anne Bradbury saying members were “committed to building on a legacy of world-leading methane emission reductions.” In a “policy roadmap” published on its website in March. however. AXPC asked the EPA to “incorporate greater flexibility for low-producing and mature assets.”.
Some members of the coalition have argued, inaccurately, that stripper wells are not significant sources of methane pollution. In a Zoom interview. NSWA board member Sam Bradley displayed a slide show he said he shared with Szabo’s staff. He said stripper wells ranked lower than both the collective exhalations of the U.S. populace and what Bradley called “smoke and brisket” — barbecues. In reality, the reporting says, these are negligible sources of emissions.
Hildebrand and fellow stripper-well owners appear likely to win exemptions.
The reporting says the AXPC’s Wendy Kirchoff shared early details of Szabo’s plan to weaken methane rules that would cover stripper wells, based on a recording reviewed. Szabo did not respond to ProPublica’s questions, and the EPA’s press office declined to comment on details.
But the EPA confirmed it is working on a proposal to “provide relief” to the oil industry. In a statement. the agency said it heard consistently from American oil and natural gas producers that the Biden-Harris Administration’s oil and gas methane regulations were “unworkable and unnecessarily restricted American energy dominance.”.
To preserve the carve-outs from a future Democratic administration, Rep. Pfluger and Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming proposed a bill to exempt stripper wells from EPA emissions rules. allowing them to pollute the atmosphere with scant economic benefit. The reporting says the NSWA and the IPAA helped craft the legislation according to an internal newsletter from a state trade group representing many stripper-well owners.
The end result is a choice that has begun to look like a bargain dressed as deregulation. The Trump administration and allies in Congress are weighing whether to preserve the business model that has made Hildebrand rich—no matter the cost to the global climate. As energy assets, his wells may be marginal. But as political currency, they have become more valuable than ever before.
Trump EPA methane rules stripper wells Jeffery Hildebrand Hilcorp Aaron Szabo Venezuela oil investment methane fee congressional rollback Leaking wells Earthworks Carbon Mapper