The US Environmental Protection Agency said on Wednesday it would soon propose scrapping a Biden-era rule aimed at curbing large leaks of methane from oil and gas operations.
The move is part of a broad Trump administration effort to slash regulations that it says burden US businesses as it seeks to boost fossil fuel production.
"Americans must be able to afford to heat their homes in the winter and fill up their car and drive to work. They can’t do that when the people producing the energy are weighed down by unnecessary burdens," EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement after making the announcement at a meeting with oil and gas industry representatives in New Mexico.
EPA's "super emitter" program requires companies to react when third parties report suspected methane leaks using remote sensing. The Trump administration, after taking office last year, had delayed implementation of the policy until next year.
EPA said its proposal to rescind the rule would save $45 billion a year.
Methane is the second-biggest cause of climate change after carbon dioxide, and the oil and gas industry is a major source of the gas
Environmental groups criticized the move.
"This giveaway to fossil fuel executives is foolish and short-sighted, and reveals who the Trump administration really works for - its political donors,” Mahyar Sorour, director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Fossil Fuels campaign, said in a statement.
(Reuters - Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Nia Williams, Cynthia Osterman and Sanjeev Miglani)