In a surprise win for environmentalists, the U.S. Senate voted 51-49 on Wednesday against repealing an Obama administration rule limiting methane pollution on federal lands.
Under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), lawmakers can overturn the rules of a previous administration within about 60 days of their enactment. The CRA was used little before the Trump Administration. But so far this year, Congress has voted 13 times to overturn various Obama rules, including those related to stream protection, internet privacy, and shooting hibernating bears.
Wednesday’s vote, however, rejected the repeal of an Obama-era rule requiring gas drillers to limit leaks, venting, and burning methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, from wells drilled on public lands. The Bureau of Land Management estimated that drillers now waste enough methane gas to supply 6.2 million homes a year, and cost taxpayers $46 to $204 million a year in lost royalties.
But preventing waste was not why the rule survived. The deciding “No” vote on its repeal, from Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, came because of a provision of the Act that would have prevented the government from drawing up any future rules restricting methane emissions. McCain joined fellow Republicans Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina in opposing the repeal.
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