WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Trump administration proposed on Thursday to loosen emission control of methane, one of the greenhouse gases that resulted in global warming.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed to abandon federal regulations that require the oil and gas industry to install technology that monitors and curbs methane leaks in wells, pipelines and other operational facilities.
EPA announced in a statement that it would "remove sources in the transmission and storage segment of the oil and gas industry from regulation." Also, it proposed to "rescind emissions limits for methane, from the production and processing segments of the industry."
The agency said that existing regulations potentially "burden the development or use of domestically produced energy resources," including oil and natural gas.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, with about 80 times heating-trapping power of carbon dioxide in the first 20 years in the atmosphere by some estimates.
The new proposal made by the country's environmental protection authorities came amid global warming's worsening impact on the planet, making July the hottest month on record. Human-made global warming also created conditions that increase the chances of extreme weather including hurricanes.
The Atlantic hurricane activity is expected to above normal with five to nine hurricanes during the entire six-month hurricane season this year, according to the U.S. forecasters. The latest one is Dorian that battered Puerto Rico this week and is drawing close to the east coast of Florida.
EPA's plan will undergo a period of public comment and review and it would likely be finalized next year.
It is expected to face strong oppositions and legal actions from environmentalists. Even some major oil and gas companies including Shell and Exxon opposed the rollback, fearing that unregulated methane leaks may tarnish their pitch that gas is a cleaner energy source.
"The EPA is now so determined to actually increase greenhouse pollution that it's even shrugging off concerns from oil and gas companies about gutting these protections," said Kassie Siegel with the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group, in a statement.
The new proposal came after EPA finalized a rule on June 19 to overturn the Obama-era attempt to restrict emissions from coal plants by relying more on cleaner fuels. The rule allows U.S. states to make their own decisions on ways and timetables to cut emissions, demanding much smaller carbon reductions.
