President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that his administration is terminating Biden-era regulations designed to hold oil and gas companies accountable for large leaks of planet-warming methane. Speaking at a campaign rally in Lubbock, Texas, Trump proposed scaling back these federal requirements to encourage domestic energy production and lower costs.
Trump stated that the changes would save consumers and energy producers $45bn and unlock 210 million barrels of oil, an amount equivalent to about 10 days of US petroleum consumption.
The EPA plans to ease the rules targeting methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is a major contributor to human-caused climate change. While small fossil-fuel producers have opposed the regulations, critics warn that these rollbacks create a climate danger.