Friday’s House vote to restore Obama-era limits is intended to curb the oil and gas industry’s emissions of a potent greenhouse gas
The House voted Friday to restore a rule targeting leaks of methane from oil and gas operations, reinstating Obama-era standards for limiting the potent greenhouse gas that had been dismantled under President Donald Trump.
The 229 to 191 vote marked a rare bipartisan step in the fight against climate change, but it comes amid growing tensions among Democrats over whether broader and more ambitious action is being sacrificed in the push for a bipartisan infrastructure deal. Twelve House Republicans sided with 217 Democrats to push through the measure.
The vote to re-establish more stringent oversight of methane, whose emissions have surged at a startling rate in recent years, focuses on the oil and gas sector, which ranks as the nation’s largest industrial source of methane emissions. Continue reading.