Methane rule repeal blocked in the Senate
Three Republicans break ranks to stop methane resolution.
In a surprising victory for President Barack Obama’s environmental legacy, the Senate voted Wednesday to uphold an Obama-era climate change regulation to control the release of methane from oil and gas wells on public land.
Senators voted 51-49 to block consideration of a resolution to repeal the 2016 Interior Department rule to curb emissions of methane, a powerful planet-warming greenhouse gas. Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine, all Republicans who have expressed concern about climate change and backed legislation to tackle the issue, broke with their party to join Democrats and defeat the resolution.
The vote also marked the first, and probably the only, defeat of a stream of resolutions over the last four months — pursued through the once-obscure Congressional Review Act — to unwind regulations approved late in the Obama administration.
“People of America and people of the world can breathe a sigh of relief,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader.
In anticipation of Republican defections, President Donald Trump sent Vice President Mike Pence to the Senate floor to break a tie vote. But with three members of his own party breaking away, Pence could do nothing.
“We were surprised and thrilled to win on this,” said Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president of the League of Conservation Voters, which, along with other environmental groups, has been lobbying Republicans for weeks to vote against the repeal of the methane rule.
While Collins and Graham had publicly announced their opposition to the measure, McCain’s vote was a surprise.
It came as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was advancing the nomination of trade lawyer Robert Lighthizer to be the U.S. trade representative. Lighthizer harshly criticized McCain during the senator’s 2008 presidential campaign, saying his free-trade views were not in the best traditions of American conservatism. McCain has since sought to block Lighthizer’s nomination, objecting to a waiver granted to him to skirt the president’s prohibition on lobbyists serving in his Cabinet.
McCain also was the target of significant lobbying on the issue. Last week, a group of retired generals from the liberal Vet Voice Foundation sent a letter to all senators, framing the rollback of the methane regulation as a national security threat. The group said the venting of the emissions from fuel wells could diminish the natural gas supply. McCain, who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has spoken of climate change and the energy supply as a national security issue.
Oil-state Republican lawmakers vowed to push Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to act on his own.
“I call on Interior Secretary Zinke to withdraw the rule immediately,” said Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. “If left in place, this regulation will only discourage energy production, job creation and economic opportunity across the West.”