Senate blocks bid to overturn Obama-era rule on drilling

WASHINGTON — In a surprising win for environmentalists and Democrats and a blow to the fossil-fuel industry, the Senate on Wednesday failed in a bid to reverse an Obama-era regulation restricting harmful methane emissions that escape from oil and gas wells on federal land.

The vote was 51-49 in the Republican-led Senate with three GOP lawmakers — Maine’s Susan Collins, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John McCain of Arizona — joining forces with the Democrats to block efforts to overturn the rule.

Former U.S. president Barack Obama finalized a rule in November that would force energy companies to capture methane that’s burned off or “flared” at drilling sites because it earns less money than oil.

Energy companies frequently “flare” or burn off vast supplies of methane — the primary component of natural gas — at drilling sites because it earns less money than oil. An estimated $330 million a year in natural gas is wasted through leaks or intentional releases — enough to power about five million homes a year.

Gas flaring is so prevalent in oil-rich North Dakota that night-time flaring activity on drilling sites is visible in NASA photos from space.

For months, Republicans have rammed through reversals of rules issued by Obama on gun rights, coal production, hunting and money for family planning clinics. They used the previously obscure Congressional Review Act, which requires just a simple majority in both chambers to overturn rules imposed recently imposed by the executive branch.

A coalition of groups with ties to the fossilfuel industry and the conservative Koch Brothers had waged a public campaign to overturn the rule.