The Senate voted Wednesday to cancel a Trump administration action that would have blocked the Environmental Protection Agency from controlling methane emitted by the oil and gas industry.
If signed by President Joe Biden, the measure, which passed 52-42 with some Republican support, would reinstate requirements for oil and gas companies to monitor and repair equipment leaking methane, a greenhouse gas dozens of times more potent than carbon dioxide in contributing to climate change.
BIDEN SETS TARGET OF CUTTING EMISSIONS UP TO 52% BY 2030 BUT WON’T DETAIL HOW TO GET THERE
It also would clear the decks for the Biden administration to fulfill a promise of setting strict controls on methane emissions from the oil and gas sector.
The vote marked the first time Democrats have overturned a Trump administration rule using the Congressional Review Act, a fast-track procedural tool that allows both chambers of Congress to pass a joint resolution to end recently implemented regulations, requiring only a simple majority vote from the Senate.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, called the action to restore methane regulations the “most significant act the Senate has taken on climate in more than a decade.”
Every Senate Democrat voted for the resolution, but only three Republicans did: Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and Rob Portman of Ohio.
Republicans who opposed the measure split from several oil and gas companies that publicly backed the resolution and have endorsed the Biden administration’s effort to impose methane controls on new and existing operations, including Devon Energy, Cheniere, Occidental Petroleum, EQT Corporation, and Pioneer Natural Resources. European oil majors Shell, BP, and Total also backed the move.
But other companies, including U.S. majors ExxonMobil, Chevron, and the trade group American Petroleum Institute, did not weigh in.
“We should not demonize an industry that is part of the lifeblood of our economy,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, the top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, adding that the market is already pushing companies to reduce methane.
Methane, the main component of natural gas, is lesser known than carbon. But emissions from methane are driving more than 25% of global warming, mostly caused by leaks during production and transportation of natural gas. Those methane leaks could offset the carbon reduction benefits of the switch in recent years from coal to gas for generating electricity.
Combating methane emissions can create a more immediate effect than cutting carbon because methane is more than 80 times more potent than carbon over a 20-year period, although it degrades faster in the atmosphere compared to carbon, which lingers for 100 years.
“Regulating methane is the low-hanging fruit of climate action,” said independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with Democrats. “It’s the most significant immediate thing we can do.”
Schumer said the resolution reinstating methane requirements would produce an effect on curbing global warming “within a year.”
Indeed, rapid action to reduce methane emissions could slow the world’s rate of warming by as much as 30%, according to a report published this week in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
Half of the reductions this decade could come at no additional cost, with around 80% of those no-cost actions available to the oil and gas industry using existing technologies.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Oil and gas companies are motivated to limit leaks of methane voluntarily because they can sell the gas they save for profit, but regulations would ensure uniform compliance, proponents say.
