The vote was bipartisan. It was fast. And it is the first time the Trump Administration has lost a major vote on anything in the U.S. Congress. As Canada prepares to announce its own methane rules, the vote sends an important signal: Americans are not ready to abandon their values. They’re in it for the long haul.
Methane is a powerful agent of global warming. The big problem starts when unburned gas gets into the atmosphere. Releasing methane into the air makes no sense, and yet leaks and releases occur throughout the natural gas supply chain. If not better mitigated, methane leaks and releases could spell major trouble for the climate. That’s why the Obama Administration sensibly decided to regulate it, requiring companies to limit methane releases on public lands. When the Trump Administration launched its attacks on clean air and clean water, it targeted this methane rule as one of several to dismantle.
U.S. NGOs vowed to fight back – in Congress, in the courts, in boardrooms and alongside Americans from all political parties who want a better future. They didn’t manage to stop Congress from rolling back rules to protect America’s mountains from being blown up to mine coal. And didn’t manage to stop Congress from letting oil, gas and mining companies make secret payments to foreign governments for drilling rights. But one victory for climate protection came Wednesday morning, when a proposal to kill the methane rule was defeated in the U.S. Senate by a vote of 49-51. It’s a small step, but it’s a good place to start.
