San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Congress seeks to reinstate rules cutting methane
WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats have approved a measure reinstating rules aimed at limiting climatewarming greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas drilling, a rare effort by Democrats to use the legislative branch to overturn a regulatory rollback under President Donald Trump.
The House gave final legislative approval Friday to a resolution that would undo a Trumpera environmental rule that relaxed requirements of a 2016 Obama administration rule targeting methane emissions from leaks and flares in oil and gas wells.
The resolution was approved, 229191, and now goes to President Biden, who is expected to sign it. Twelve Republicans joined 217 Democrats to support the measure.
Democrats and environmentalists called the methane rule one of the Trump administration’s most egregious actions to deregulate U.S. businesses and said its removal would help drive a broader effort by the Biden administration and Congress to tackle climate change. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, packing a stronger punch in the short term than carbon dioxide.
“Congress just delivered its first bipartisan win for the climate,” said Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund. “Controlling methane is a winning proposition for all sides because it cuts pollution and reduces waste.”
The resolution was approved under the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to overturn certain regulations that have been in place for a short time. The Trump methane rule was finalized in September.
Action on methane was one of just three Trumpera rules targeted by the Democraticcontrolled Congress under the review law, a sharp contrast to 14 Obamaera rules repealed by congressional Republicans in the first year of the Trump administration.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, DSan Francisco, said the action on methane was part of an effort by Congress to reassert its own power. She called the Congressional Review Act “one of the Congress’s most important tools … to deliver for the people and to reclaim our authority under the Constitution.”
Republicans disagreed, saying the measure took unfair aim at oil and gas companies that are already working to reduce emissions of methane and other greenhouse gases. Rep. Pete Stauber, RMinn., said the repeal measure advanced “radical activist priorities” while empowering foreign oil producers in the Middle East and Russia.