The Obama administration has unveiled its latest move to tighten rules around fracking as the US shale industry buckles under the pressure of low crude prices.

The Department of the Interior on Friday proposed regulations to cut leaks of methane — a powerful greenhouse gas — from oil and gas developments on the public land it oversees. 

Industry groups condemned the move, calling it part of an “avalanche” of costly regulations that are hurting struggling oil and gas companies that are already engaged in emergency cost cutting. 

As President Barack Obama seeks to leave a legacy of action on climate change, the interior department said it was updating 30 year-old regulations to cut “wasteful” leaks of methane, the main component of natural gas. 

The proposed rules require oil and gas producers to use the latest technology to limit leaks and flaring, through which excess gas is often burnt off, and to step up leak inspections with tools such as infra-fed cameras. 

Sally Jewell, the interior secretary, said: “I think most people would agree that we should be using our nation’s natural gas to power our economy — not wasting it by venting and flaring it into the atmosphere.” 

While carbon dioxide tends to garner most attention for its planet-warming effects, scientists say methane is a more potent but more shortlived greenhouse gas. 

Paul Ryan, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, said: “This will stymie oil and natural gas development on federal lands, which is the president’s real goal: to keep it in the ground. As the markets drop, and America’s saving and retirement portfolios suffer, it’s astonishing that this president would seek to further cripple America’s energy industry.” 

A few days after US crude prices hit a 12-year low, the American Petroleum Association, the main oil lobby group, said on Friday that it did not need government rules to cut leaks. 

Erik Milito, an API director, said: “We share the desire to reduce emissions and are leading efforts because capturing more natural gas helps us deliver more affordable energy to consumers . . . The incentive is built-in.” 

The proposed rules would be phased in over three years but are likely to be challenged in the courts by their critics. 

Neil Kornze, a senior interior department official, told reporters that 84 per cent of existing oil and gas wells were already in compliance with the proposed rules. “Some folks are in good shape here. Others, we need them to take additional steps.” 

The Obama administration predicts that its proposals would cut methane waste by 50 per cent. The federal land where the regulations would apply accounts for about 11 per cent of US natural gas production and 5 per cent of oil production. 

In August 2015 another federal body, the Environmental Protection Agency, introduced rules to curb methane leaks from new but not existing oil and gas wells on private land.