The European Commission has proposed suspending financial penalties for oil and gas companies that violate the EU's 2024 Methane Regulation for three years, until 2029, citing the need to avoid supply disruptions. The move, widely seen as a concession to pressure from the Trump administration, which had pushed Brussels to ease methane rules as US liquefied natural gas exports to Europe grow, effectively delays enforcement of a law designed to strictly monitor methane emissions across energy supply chains. Environmental groups have condemned the decision as an attack on the EU's Green Deal, warning that without sanctions the regulation's climate benefits could prove illusory — particularly significant given that methane warms the atmosphere more than 80 times faster than CO₂ over a 20-year period.