The Senate on Wednesday voted 52-42 to restore regulations on methane gas leaks in oil and gas production that the Trump administration had loosened last summer. Three Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), and Rob Portman (Ohio) — voted with the Democrats to overturn former President Donald Trump's rule using the Congressional Review Act, a 1996 law that lets Congress kill recently adopted regulations. Curbing methane emissions is a key element of President Biden's push to fight climate change.
The House has not yet voted to restore the methane rules, instituted by former President Barack Obama's Environmental Protection Agency in 2016. The oil and gas industry had originally lobbied against the methane rules, which require oil and gas companies to monitor their equipment for leaking methane and repair any breaches. But many large oil and gas producers, and their main lobbying group the American Petroleum Institute, now support regulating methane emissions.
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