The Environmental Protection Agency touted data on Wednesday showing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions fell 2.7 percent across the power sector and large manufacturing facilities in 2017, the first year of the Trump administration, even as it has pursued a deregulatory agenda.

“Thanks to President Trump’s regulatory reform agenda, the economy is booming, energy production is surging, and we are reducing greenhouse gas emissions from major industrial sources,” EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a statement. “These achievements flow largely from technological breakthroughs in the private sector, not the heavy hand of government. The Trump Administration has proven that federal regulations are not necessary to drive CO2 reductions. While many around the world are talking about reducing greenhouse gases, the U.S. continues to deliver, and today’s report is further evidence of our action-oriented approach.”

The data covers 8,000 large facilities that reported their 2017 emissions to EPA.

Despite falling emissions, the EPA has proposed weakening Obama administration rules meant to further combat carbon emissions from coal, the largest emitting energy source.

A key justification the EPA provided in moving to gut former President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan is the fact that the power market is already naturally becoming cleaner, making strict regulation unnecessary in its judgment.

The Clean Power Plan, which was never implemented because of a Supreme Court stay, required states to reduce carbon dioxide emissions 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.

The U.S. has already achieved 28 percent of that goal, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, thanks to cheaper natural gas and renewables that are replacing coal.

Even with a more limited scope, the EPA's narrower replacement rule will see power sector emissions falling 33 to 34 percent below 2005 levels, according to the Trump administration's projections.

But environmentalists and experts say Obama intended the Clean Power Plan to be just the first step in a broader policy to combat global warming, which is also affected by emissions from other sources, such as transportation.

A U.N. report released this month said the U.S., and the world, must cut emissions much more, and faster, to avoid the worst consequences of climate change.

The Clean Power Plan was a key component of the U.S. commitment to the Paris climate agreement that Trump has rejected, because power sector emissions account for roughly one-third of America’s overall emissions.

To reach the target of the Paris goal, the U.S. would need to both increase the pace of carbon emissions reduction in the power sector, and also cut pollution from transportation, which has proven to be a more difficult task.

Last year, the transportation sector became the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. That especially worries experts, because the Trump administration has also proposed relaxing stringent fuel efficiency standards for vehicles set by Obama.