An attempt by Senate Republicans to rollback an Obama-era regulation limiting methane emissions on federal lands failed, but the Interior Department has announced it would review the rule on its own.
Proposed by the Bureau of Land Management back in February 2016 and implemented in November 2016, the rule requiring drilling companies to limit methane emissions on has been called burdensome and unnecessary by critics.
“The Department has reviewed and flagged the Waste Prevention rule as one we will suspend, revise or rescind given its significant regulatory burden that encumbers American energy production, economic growth and job creation,” Kate MacGregor, acting assistant secretary of the interior for land and minerals, noted in a statement.
“The rule is expected to have real and harmful impacts on onshore energy development and could impact state and local jobs and revenue,” she continued. “Small independent oil and gas producers in states like North Dakota, Colorado and New Mexico, which account for a substantial portion of our nation’s energy wealth, could be hit the hardest.”
Before MacGregor’s statement, the regulations looked like they were here to stay. The House passed the resolution 221-191 in February, but the Senate voted against repeal 51-49, as Senators Susan Collins, Lindsey Graham, and John McCain broke ranks to side with the Democrats. Collins and Graham had already expressed their opposition, but McCain decided to vote “no” at the last minute, stating that its “passage … would have prevented the federal government, under any administration, from issuing a rule that is ‘similar,’ according to the plain reading of the Congressional Review Act [CRA].”
This was significant, given that the vote was the GOP’s last chance to use the CRA to speed up the process of deregulation. The act allows Congress to remove rules implemented by a previous president using a simple majority vote within 60 legislative days after Congress has received them. The qualifying time period, however, is ending, meaning that it will be much harder to implement President Donald Trump’s calls for deregulation.
Democrats thus treated the outcome as a victory in itself.
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said: “People of America and people of the world can breathe a sigh of relief.”
And according to The Hill, Senator Tom Udall stated: “This is a good, solid rule, and it’s a commonsense rule, and I think it prevents waste just like it was laid out to do. We’re preventing waste, we’re doing job creation, and we’re acting on the part of public health.”
Those who backed the repeal called on Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to respond shortly before the announcement was issued.
Senator John Barrasso, chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, told the New York Times: “I call on Interior Secretary Zinke to withdraw the rule immediately. If left in place, this regulation will only discourage energy production, job creation and economic opportunity across the West.”
But now that the department has decided to take action, it remains to be seen which specific path it will take to change the rule. The Los Angeles Times reports that the resulting move could be challenged in court like other anti-regulatory efforts stemming from the Trump administration.
