May 10, 2017 10:42 AM UTC

Senate Defeats Attempt To Scuttle Obama Methane Rule

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• by: Colorado Pols

A big surprise out of Washington, D.C. this morning–and we mean that in a good way for a change–as the Washington Post reports:

The U.S. Senate narrowly voted down a resolution on Wednesday to repeal an Obama-era rule regulating methane emissions from drilling on public lands — with three Republicans joining every Democrat to preserve the rule.

The 51 to 49 vote marked the first time since Trump’s election that Republicans have failed in their attempt to use the Congressional Review Act to overturn Obama-era rules.

Thirteen earlier resolutions, based on the 1996 law that allows Congress to overturn rules within 60 days of their adoption, all succeeded…

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) unexpectedly voted no against a motion to proceed with consideration of the resolution, along with GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.). Two Democrats who had considered backing the rule’s elimination — Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia — voted against the motion as well.

In a floor speech after the vote, Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), said “the very first victory” lawmakers have had in beating back a Congressional Review Act bill this year came from a combination of Democratic unity and a few Republicans’ willingness to buck their leadership. “Thank you so much for coming forward and seeing the common sense nature of this issue,” Udall said, referring to Collins, Graham and McCain.

Conservation Colorado celebrates in a statement today–and slams Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado for his vote to repeal the federal Methane Rule:

This is an incredible day for the environment and for citizens across the country who have been telling their members of Congress to vote for clean air. The vote should have been an easy one for the oil and gas lobby to win, but the power of citizen activism has broken through the political morass.

With that said, we are deeply disappointed in Senator Gardner’s vote. Despite more than 10,000 emails and calls from Coloradans and multiple protests at his offices on this issue, Senator Gardner managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by voting against Colorado’s clean air in what amounted to a futile vote for him. [Pols emphasis]

It’s obvious from this vote that Senator Gardner is much more interested in joining the Washington, D.C. political club rather than representing the values of Coloradans. This is not the leadership that Colorado needs, and we will double down on our efforts to make sure that Coloradans of all stripes know what a threat Senator Gardner’s voting record poses to clean air and environment.

Colorado already has rules requiring that methane be captured instead of wasted–beneficial both to air quality and our bottom line since royalties are paid on the energy that isn’t wasted here. Even though we have this protection already, air pollution doesn’t respect state boundaries. The federal Methane Rule the Trump administration wanted overturned via the controversial Congressional Review Act is based on Colorado’s rule.

All told, this is a huge win against the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back President Barack Obama’s legacy. Sen. Gardner, who pays so much lip service to being a conservation-minded “different kind of Republican,” had a golden opportunity today to join other Republican Senators in doing the right thing, show independence from Trump, and uphold the values on this issue of the state he represents.

#Methane CRA rule vote helps one #cosen maintain that 1.000 batting average. https://t.co/HiD8L5rBES #copolitics

— Mike Saccone (@SacconeSpeaks) May 10, 2017

And he didn’t.