Hildebrand had never been a leading political contributor. But in 2024, the Biden administration issued aggressive restrictions on methane pollution \u2014 rules that would impose steep costs on Hilcorp \u2014 and the once-obscure tycoon became one of Trump\u2019s biggest oil industry supporters, giving millions to his campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump has since named a former Hilcorp lobbyist to a top post at the Environmental Protection Agency, putting him in charge of an effort to unravel the methane rules with help from trade groups backed by Hildebrand, a ProPublica investigation has found. That will bring a sweeping reprieve for the nation\u2019s 700,000 stripper wells, boosting Hildebrand\u2019s profits while saddling society as a whole with the climate fallout.<\/p>\n\n\n We\u2019re still reporting. If you know more about the Trump administration\u2019s climate policies, please contact our reporting team.<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t\t\t\t Alex Cuadros<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t I welcome tips or documents about Trump administration climate policy or actions by private companies or institutions that may impact the climate.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n Stripper wells collectively contribute just 6% of the nation\u2019s oil and natural gas. But in recent<\/a> studies<\/a>, scientists have identified them as the source of roughly half the sector\u2019s methane emissions \u2014 in part because they tend to be thinly monitored, run-down and thus prone to leaking. As a result, these barely productive wells play an outsize role in climate change, disproportionately amplifying heat waves, droughts and wildfires. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In a world where global warming fixes can seem impossibly daunting, stripper wells are the rare low-hanging fruit, said Andrew Logan of Ceres, a climate advocacy group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you could lose 6% of production and cut emissions in half, who wouldn\u2019t make that trade?\u201d Logan said. \u201cIt\u2019s a question of who benefits and who doesn\u2019t, and who has the power.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kendra Pinto and Josh Eisenfeld drove a rented Dodge Ram to the site of a Hilcorp well in San Juan County, New Mexico, last August. As infrared camera operators with the nonprofit Earthworks, they were used to roaming through remote areas to investigate leaks at oil and gas wells. But the San Juan is especially lonely terrain, with bumpy dirt roads snaking between scattered scrub and rusting pump jacks, the nodding apparatuses that lift oil and gas from thousands of feet underground. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A sign marked the site as Hilcorp\u2019s Huerfano Unit 119 well, one of the company\u2019s 11,000 in the region. It was little more than a patch of gravel hosting two unmarked storage tanks and what oil workers call a Christmas tree: the cluster of valves that caps the well itself. Drilled in 1969, the well now produces a small but steady trickle of natural gas, enough to generate around $50 of revenue per day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On paper, it runs remarkably cleanly. According to New Mexico\u2019s oil regulator<\/a>, Hilcorp has not reported any \u201cventing\u201d \u2014 releasing gas \u2014 from the well since May 2024. At the site itself, however, a wire fence surrounded some of the equipment, bearing a yellow caution sign that read, \u201cWell vents randomly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Methane is invisible to the human eye. But on June 29 last year, a satellite detected a massive methane plume<\/a> erupting from this very location. According to the nonprofit Carbon Mapper, a NASA partner that one oil executive defined as a \u201cplatform to disseminate the sins of our industry,\u201d the methane was being discharged at a rate of 199 kilograms an hour. That\u2019s equivalent to about 12 times the volume of natural gas the well typically produces over that time. The cause was unknown, but according to scientists who have studied the issue, such \u201csuper-emitter\u201d events typically stem from some kind of neglect or malfunction \u2014 if not from 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pinto and Eisenfeld observed smaller, more persistent leaks as well. When they trained their infrared camera on one of the storage tanks, wispy clouds of pollution could be seen<\/a> streaming from a pressure-release valve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat shouldn\u2019t just be constantly \u2026\u201d Eisenfeld said, trailing off. The finding was far from abnormal, though. Of the eight Hilcorp wells he and Pinto visited that day, seven were seen to be leaking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In response to a detailed list of questions from ProPublica, Hilcorp spokesperson Nick Piatek said in an email that the Huerfano Unit 119 well \u201cis fully compliant with state and federal regulations\u201d and that the company inspects the site monthly. He also suggested that the company\u2019s approach caused less environmental harm than drilling new wells: \u201cBy extending and optimizing the life of existing assets with pre-built infrastructure, our model limits the need for new development elsewhere.\u201d The company is \u201cproud,\u201d he added, of recent efforts to reduce its emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hilcorp is hardly an outlier in its approach to methane releases. America\u2019s oil and gas system is vast, aging, and in many places largely left to police itself<\/a>. Of the country\u2019s roughly 1 million active wells, more than two-thirds are stripper wells, each producing the equivalent of up to 15 barrels a day. Many produce less than a single barrel a day. (Newer wells, by contrast, can pump 1,000 a day or more.) Each well site, in turn, is equipped with numerous valves, flanges and other fittings that can leak unless inspected regularly. Some components were explicitly designed to vent small amounts of gas \u2014 a legacy of an era when methane\u2019s role in global warming wasn\u2019t widely understood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Methane, the main component of natural gas, turns into carbon dioxide when burned to heat a home or generate electricity. But when the gas enters the atmosphere directly, it becomes a much more powerful climate pollutant \u2014 one that is responsible for one-third of the rise in global temperatures<\/a> since the Industrial Revolution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Methane exists underground alongside other fossil fuels and is brought to the surface whether oil or natural gas is being pumped. While it\u2019s a valuable product in itself, capturing it is not always cost-effective. So companies often burn it off, or just vent it<\/a>, sending it straight into the atmosphere. Apart from the climate impact, this is all sheer waste, as none of the methane\u2019s energy is being harnessed for a human need. Yet with few exceptions, federal rules have allowed these practices at wells drilled before 2012 \u2014 which include the overwhelming majority of stripper wells. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Methane leakage is such a routine part of oil and gas production that the EPA often assumes it is happening when asking the industry to calculate its emissions. Even so, those numbers drastically understate the actual emissions observed by plane and satellite. A study led by Evan Sherwin of Stanford<\/a>, published in the journal Nature in 2024, took close to a million measurements to find that the true figures were, on average, nearly three times higher. Partly that is because companies have never had to report super-emitter events to the EPA. In one region, nearly 10% of all the natural gas produced was being lost to the atmosphere, the study found. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But limiting methane pollution presents a rare opportunity. While carbon dioxide can persist in the atmosphere for centuries, methane breaks down relatively fast, in about a dozen years. Halting these releases, then, would bring a swift payoff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMethane is the best lever we have to slow the march of climate change in our lifetime,\u201d said Stanford researcher Rob Jackson. That is especially important, he added, as the planet approaches tipping points<\/a> \u2014 temperature thresholds beyond which forests, coral reefs and ice sheets start to collapse irreversibly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unlike with other major methane sources, such as belching cattle or melting permafrost, the technology to curb emissions from oil and gas operations is already viable, and fairly cheap. In the fight against global warming, Jackson said, \u201cIt\u2019s the best bang for our buck.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n To build a fortune on the discarded scraps of the oil and gas industry takes a rare instinct for hidden value, an appetite for risk and an obsession with keeping costs down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Among the nation\u2019s stripper well owners, Hildebrand has done it best, amassing a fortune estimated by Bloomberg at $15 billion<\/a>. Yet at a time when many billionaires are embracing celebrity, he has maintained an unusually low profile. At 67, he\u2019s almost completely avoided speaking to reporters, and he didn\u2019t respond to multiple interview requests from ProPublica. Even Trump, despite having invited him to the White House, seemed hazy on Hildebrand\u2019s role in the oil industry. \u201cI hear he does a good job,\u201d the president said when reached by ProPublica on his cellphone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While he avoids the public eye, Hildebrand circulates openly in the overlapping worlds of wealthy businesspeople, private clubs and Republican power brokers. He has been known to hold exclusive parties at his 1,200-acre ranch in Aspen, Colorado \u2014 which used to belong, in part, to the musician (and environmentalist) John Denver. He also owns a polo team called Tonkawa, a fixture of the winter season in the sport’s unofficial capital of Wellington, Florida, a short drive from Mar-a-Lago. A video of a 2021 match<\/a> shows him in a white helmet and forest-green jersey, riding a bay pony as he swings his mallet, trying and failing to keep the ball from the opposing side\u2019s patron, a Russian banker named Andrey Borodin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a striking tension between Hildebrand\u2019s status as one of the country\u2019s most prolific polluters and his otherwise conventional life as a God-fearing, upstanding Texas businessman. He is less a rogue actor than the product of a deeply American system that rewards production at all costs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A devout Catholic and philanthropist<\/a>, he is especially passionate about wildlife conservation, according to Stuart Stedman and Karen Starr Hunke, fellow board members at Texas A&M\u2019s Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute. Yet they and others who know him through the institute said they\u2019d never once heard him mention climate change \u2014 an omission that points to a far narrower view of environmental stewardship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The closest Hildebrand has come to addressing the issue publicly is in a rare speech he gave in 2022<\/a>, accepting an award as a distinguished alumnus at UT Austin. A husky, square-jawed man, he wore a burnt-orange suit jacket and a burnt-orange tie. He cited an old quote he interpreted as a celebration of the oil industry: \u201cSmite the rocks with the rod of knowledge, and fountains of unstinted wealth will gush forth.\u201d Then he quipped that \u201cin this Green New Deal era we live in\u201d \u2014 a reference to the Democrats\u2019 climate agenda \u2014 such sentiments might no longer be welcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Born in 1959 in Houston, America\u2019s energy capital, Hildebrand graduated from high school at a time when oil prices were soaring. Determined to start his own oil business<\/a>, he studied geology and petroleum engineering at UT Austin, where he was in the Kappa Alpha fraternity. He worked briefly for Exxon and a few other companies, including that of a prominent Houston investor named Jack Trotter, before starting Hilcorp in \u201989 with Trotter\u2019s backing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The oil business is filled with stories of crazy risks, near-bankruptcies and improbable rebounds. Hildebrand likes to recount that he used his wife\u2019s car as collateral for a loan to drill some early wells. In a speech for his induction into the Texas Business Hall of Fame<\/a>, he said they turned out to be \u201cdry holes\u201d \u2014 failures \u2014 but the return on Melinda\u2019s investment would prove \u201cinfinite\u201d (only a slight exaggeration).<\/p>\n\n\n\n He started buying stripper wells from larger companies, a niche that is relatively cheap to break into. As a well ages and the underlying reservoir is depleted, pressure in the well drops, and production along with it. The price for a package of these wells tends to be low \u2014 one friend recalled \u201cwhen a big deal for Jeff was $5 million\u201d \u2014 but to turn a profit, the new owners have to cut costs. Typically they do this by playing fast and loose with environmental rules<\/a>, according to Clark Williams-Derry of the nonprofit Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, who calls this the \u201cdung beetle model.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Hildebrand expanded into other states, loading up on debt<\/a> to make ever larger acquisitions, there\u2019s evidence he followed this model. According to records obtained by ProPublica from state and federal environmental regulators, his company has racked up dozens of violations over the past decade. To cite one notable example, after a Hilcorp natural gas pipeline ruptured in Alaska\u2019s Cook Inlet in December 2016, it spewed methane for nearly four months until it was finally repaired. Activists across the country call the company \u201cSpillcorp.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The penalties, though, have largely amounted to a slap on the wrist, rarely exceeding $500,000 \u2014 and often coming in far lower. \u201cI would frankly put that in the category of just operating costs,\u201d said Matt Bernstein, an analyst at the research firm Rystad Energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What set Hildebrand apart from other \u201cdung beetles\u201d was that he also found ways to squeeze out more oil and gas from aging wells, not only cutting costs but increasing revenue. His secret was what he has called a \u201cpretty simple\u201d formula<\/a>: attract top geologists and engineers by offering Wall Street-style incentives, allowing them to effectively take partnership stakes in projects. According to a person involved in an early deal, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, Hildebrand would offer 1.1 times what Hilcorp\u2019s own analysis said an acquisition was worth, betting on the \u201cmagic\u201d of his team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The 2010s saw the landmark Paris Agreement on global warming, the rise of teen activist Greta Thunberg and the first pledge by a major oil company to effectively zero its emissions. None of that dissuaded Hildebrand from doubling down on aging wells. In 2017, he spent $3 billion to mount his largest acquisition yet: ConocoPhillips\u2019 operation in the San Juan Basin, where Pinto and Eisenfeld would later identify so many leaks. Once among the country\u2019s top sources of natural gas, the region had since fallen into decline \u2014 and it was already notorious for its methane pollution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon after, according to a Clean Air Task Force analysis<\/a> of data companies report to the EPA, Hilcorp became the No. 1 emitter of methane in the entire U.S. oil and gas industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n President Joe Biden presented the first serious threat to Hildebrand\u2019s business. As part of his ambitious climate agenda, the EPA issued rules aimed at cutting methane pollution from oil and gas operations by a whopping 80% \u2014 and they took direct aim at stripper wells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the first time, outside a patchwork of state rules, older wells would face requirements for regular leak inspections and limits on venting and flaring. Companies would be forced to respond to satellite reports of super-emitters, making repairs if necessary. A fee would also be imposed on excess methane emissions, costing the oil and gas industry an estimated $500 million a year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Even the Department of Justice got involved, filing suits to crack down on improper methane releases. One found that Hilcorp had failed to capture the emissions when it redrilled 145 wells in the San Juan \u2014 discharges large enough that Don Schreiber, a rancher who documented some of the events, described hearing a \u201cjet engine\u201d sound as the gas rushed into the air. This time, the penalties were more than a slap on the wrist; although Hilcorp did not admit to wrongdoing, it settled the allegations for $9.4 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the new rules gradually being phased in, Hildebrand effectively made parallel bets. Getting a jump on compliance, Hilcorp started upgrading much of its aging equipment \u2014 and its methane numbers declined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat\u2019s a win,\u201d said Lesley Feldman of the Clean Air Task Force<\/a>, a nonprofit that advocates for cutting emissions. \u201cThat means the policy is working. And we\u2019ve seen evidence of other companies doing this too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet while Feldman celebrated the reductions, she did question their magnitude. Hilcorp spokesperson Piatek said the company\u2019s methane numbers had fallen by \u201cnearly 80% in recent years.\u201d But, Feldman said after examining Hilcorp’s most recent data<\/a>, that decline is artificially inflated by recent changes<\/a> to the reporting rules, which make comparisons to previous years misleading. The data itself may be suspect, she added, because the EPA has yet to publicly verify it<\/a> \u2014 and Hilcorp has previously made huge upward revisions to its reported emissions. (Piatek didn’t respond when ProPublica pointed out the artificially inflated reduction.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even taking the numbers at face value, Hilcorp remains one of the oil industry\u2019s top methane emitters, according to a ProPublica analysis of EPA data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Since he was still looking at substantial compliance costs, Hildebrand\u2019s other bet was to step up his political contributions. Since 2020, he and his wife have given more than $15 million to Trump and other Republicans<\/a> in federal races, placing them among the top donors in an industry that overwhelmingly supports the president and his party. (That compares to just over $3 million in the entire two decades prior.) The recipients have included Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. August Pfluger, both of Texas \u2014 two of the most vocal opponents to the methane fee, which they call the \u201cnatural gas tax.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n During the 2024 campaign, Hildebrand also co-hosted at least three high-dollar fundraisers for Trump, who promised to \u201cunleash American energy\u201d by dismantling climate regulations. One was a lavish dinner held a short drive from Hildebrand\u2019s Aspen ranch, at a home sprinkled with art<\/a> by Andy Warhol (a tiny self-portrait), Damien Hirst (a mirrored pill cabinet) and Jack Pierson (mismatched lettering that spelled out the word \u201cbadass\u201d). The home belonged to another donor later graced with an appointment: the investor John Phelan, who would briefly serve as Trump\u2019s Navy secretary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hildebrand co-hosted two of the fundraisers in Houston. One was reportedly scheduled<\/a> to take place at his own home, but, due to security concerns, it was moved to a hotel owned by the sports and entertainment magnate Tilman Fertitta, who would be named ambassador to Italy. The other was followed by a private roundtable where, according to Teofilo Lingi, an investor who was present, oil executives discussed the methane rules with Trump himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At a previous event with Trump<\/a>, Hildebrand said, \u201cI\u2019m really here today to represent the independent energy companies, the family-owned businesses that are in this industry.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n This mom-and-pop image clashes with the reality that the independents, as they are known, are highly organized into an alphabet soup of newly influential lobbying groups \u2014 with Hildebrand a member of several. Hilcorp CEO Greg Lalicker sits on the board of the American Exploration and Production Council (AXPC), which also represents Diversified, the country\u2019s single largest owner of stripper wells. At least until recently, another Hilcorp executive was a director at the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), which represents smaller producers, including many stripper well owners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In an industry long hostile to regulation, the independents have often displayed a more open contempt toward climate policy<\/a> than the global oil giants. And they have historically had little say in emissions rules. \u201cThey didn\u2019t want to be regulated, but they kind of knew that was a losing argument,\u201d said Joseph Goffman, who held top EPA roles under both President Barack Obama and Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hildebrand received an early sign that was going to change when, less than three weeks after the 2025 inauguration, Trump tapped his wife to be ambassador to Costa Rica \u2014 even though she was primarily known for charity work and for opening a doughnut shop<\/a> in their wealthy Houston neighborhood of River Oaks. Melinda Hildebrand didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment, but when ProPublica asked Trump why he appointed her, he said, \u201cI don\u2019t know, because you know, I get recommendations. \u2026 I see the list of people, but we only name good people, and I\u2019m sure she\u2019s very good.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Later that month, the Republican-controlled Congress effectively killed the methane fee, and Trump nominated a former Hilcorp lobbyist named Aaron Szabo to oversee the EPA\u2019s climate regulations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Szabo, an otherwise inconspicuous former bureaucrat, helped to unite two distinct networks with overlapping ambitions. As a lobbyist for Hilcorp and other oil and gas companies, he had already helped to draft a letter from the AXPC<\/a> opposing the new methane rules. He then became a fellow at the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute and gave advice on climate regulations for the EPA chapter of the Heritage Foundation\u2019s Project 2025, the deregulatory blueprint for the second Trump administration. The chapter specifically recommended dismantling the program to address super-emitters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now tasked with rewriting the methane rules, Szabo has been seeking input from oil industry groups including the AXPC, the IPAA and the National Stripper Well Association (NSWA), according to interviews with industry representatives and current and former EPA officials, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s the first time in 20 years of my business that they\u2019ll even answer the phone,\u201d NSWA Chair Patrick Montalban told ProPublica, referring to top regulators. He described an informal atmosphere where independent oil executives called on old personal connections to open the doors. He himself had met not just with Szabo but with EPA chief Lee Zeldin, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright. He and Wright, he noted, have both served on the board of yet another oil industry group<\/a>. (Press offices for the departments of Interior and Energy didn\u2019t respond to emails seeking comment.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The IPAA\u2019s Lee Fuller, on a private conference call with industry representatives, also spoke glowingly about a meeting with Szabo\u2019s office last year. Previously, he said, the EPA had never even considered the group\u2019s requests to create separate methane rules for stripper wells. This time, though, agency staff brought it up unprompted \u2014 which suggests that it was already on Szabo\u2019s agenda. Presented with this opening, the IPAA later asked for stripper wells to be exempted from the methane rules entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hilcorp spokesperson Piatek declined to answer questions from ProPublica about the influence campaign. The IPAA also declined to comment but sent an email linking to a recent statement of support for deregulating stripper wells<\/a> that nonetheless nodded toward \u201cour shared environmental goals.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The heart of the stripper-well owners\u2019 argument is that they simply cannot afford to be regulated. \u201cVenting and flaring are essential for the survivability of low production wells,\u201d an IPAA lawyer named James D. Elliott wrote in an email to EPA officials<\/a> last year. He cited estimates that the methane rules would force 300,000 of the lowest-producing wells to shut down. Framing this as a blow to small-business owners, he didn\u2019t acknowledge that it would have almost no impact on the U.S. energy supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The AXPC declined to answer ProPublica\u2019s questions about the group\u2019s interactions with Szabo\u2019s staff but sent a statement from CEO Anne Bradbury saying its members were \u201ccommitted to building on a legacy of world-leading methane emission reductions.\u201d In a \u201cpolicy roadmap\u201d<\/a> published on its website in March, however, it asked the EPA to \u201cincorporate greater flexibility for low-producing and mature assets.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some members of the coalition have argued, inaccurately, that stripper wells are not significant sources of methane pollution. In a Zoom interview with ProPublica, NSWA board member Sam Bradley played a slideshow that he said he\u2019d shared with Szabo\u2019s staff. One slide purported to show the emissions from various sources. Stripper wells ranked lower than both the collective exhalations of the U.S. populace and what Bradley called \u201csmoke and brisket\u201d \u2014 barbecues. (In reality, these are negligible<\/a> sources<\/a> of emissions.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hildebrand and his fellow stripper-well owners appear likely to win exemptions. Speaking with industry representatives last month, the AXPC\u2019s Wendy Kirchoff shared early details of Szabo\u2019s plan to weaken the methane rules, confirming it will cover stripper wells, according to a recording reviewed by ProPublica. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Szabo himself didn\u2019t respond to questions sent by ProPublica, and the EPA\u2019s press office declined to comment on the details. But the agency confirmed it is working on a proposal to \u201cprovide relief\u201d to the oil industry, saying in a statement, \u201cWe heard consistently from American oil and natural gas producers (shocker that we meet with stakeholders) that the Biden-Harris Administration\u2019s oil and gas methane regulations were unworkable and unnecessarily restricted American energy dominance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n To protect carve-outs from rollback by a future Democratic administration, Pfluger, the representative from Texas, and Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., have proposed a bill to simply exempt stripper wells<\/a> from EPA emissions rules \u2014 allowing them to pollute the atmosphere at will, with scant economic benefit. The NSWA and the IPAA both helped to craft the legislation, according to an internal newsletter from a state trade group that represents many stripper-well owners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In effect, the Trump administration and its allies in Congress are weighing whether to preserve the business model that 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.<\/p>\n The post Trump Plans to Protect Methane-Leaking Stripper Wells. This Billionaire Donor Will Benefit.<\/a> appeared first on ProPublica<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2254848381_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?w=752\")
\n\n\t\t\n\nDo You Know More About This Topic?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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The \u201cDung Beetle Model\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Washington Comes for Stripper Wells<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Rollback<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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www.propublica.org Source link <\/a>\r\nIn January, oil billionaire Jeffery Hildebrand attended a White House meeting with President Trump and energy executives about investing in Venezuela’s oil industry. While many executives expressed skepticism, Hildebrand pledged his commitment to rebuilding Venezuela’s infrastructure. As a major donor to Trump, he sought favor amid stringent Biden-era methane regulations impacting his company, Hilcorp, one of the top methane polluters in the U.S. Hildebrand\u2019s investments in low-producing “stripper wells” have raised concerns due to significant methane emissions. Trump\u2019s administration seeks to weaken regulations, potentially exempting stripper wells from new emissions rules, benefiting Hildebrand’s business model at a climate cost.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"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, a little-known oil billionaire named Jeffery Hildebrand, had been summoned to the White House. By mid-afternoon he was in the East Room, just three seats from President Donald Trump,…","protected":false},"author":344,"featured_media":2745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/344"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}