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... The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to drastically weaken requirements for leak inspections and equipment upgrades at more than 700,000 low-producing "stripper wells," according to a draft rule being reviewed by the White House and seen by ProPublica.

These wells -- which tend to be old, poorly maintained and thus prone to leaking -- produce just 6% of the country's oil and natural gas but are responsible for roughly half the sector's methane pollution, studies show.

The EPA acknowledged similar figures in the draft. But it said that the cost of complying with existing regulations would force the lowest-producing wells to shut down and that this was "unreasonable" -- even though it would eliminate just 0.4% of U.S. oil and gas production, according to an industry estimate cited in the proposed rule. ...