The Senate fell just shy of the number of votes required to repeal a Department of the Interior rule amending Bureau of Land Management (BLM) regulations used to prepare, revise or amend plans for land usage pursuant to the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976.
Three Republicans – Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) – and all Democrats voted against the legislation to disapprove the BLM rule via the Congressional Review Act (CRA) for a final vote tally of 51-49 against. Vice President Mike Pence was at the Capitol in case his vote was needed as a tiebreaker.
The bill was the only CRA bill to pass the House but be voted down by the Senate. Since the start of the 2017 Congress, 14 bills repealing rules issued in 2016 have passed both chambers, and the president has signed 13 of those, to date.
“Improving the control of methane emissions is an important public health and air quality issue, which is why some states are moving forward with their own regulations requiring greater investment in recapture technology,” McCain said in a statement. “I join the call for strong action to reduce pollution from venting, flaring and leaks associated with oil and gas production operations on public and Indian land. While I am concerned that the BLM rule may be onerous, passage of the resolution would have prevented the federal government, under any administration, from issuing a rule that is ‘similar,’ according to the plain reading of the Congressional Review Act.
“I believe that the public interest is best served if the Interior Department issues a new rule to revise and improve the BLM methane rule. I look forward to working with my colleagues who voted to proceed to the resolution today.”
The final rule allows the BLM to “more readily address resource issues at a variety of scales, such as wildfire, wildlife habitat, appropriate development, or the demand for renewable and non-renewable energy sources and to respond more effectively to change.” The rule advocates for the use of “high-quality information, including the best available scientific information, in the planning process” and stresses “the importance of evaluating the resource, environmental, ecological, social and economic conditions at the onset of planning.” It also revises existing text on BLM planning regulations to improve clarity and readability.
The shortfall was a surprise to Republicans, who expected the vote to be close but were largely confident they would have enough votes to pass the measure.
“We actually thought we had just enough,” Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said in a report by Bloomberg. “But as it turns out we lost three and didn’t get any help from the Democrats.”
Hoeven released a statement saying: “BLM’s methane rule imposes unnecessary and unworkable mandates on top of North Dakota’s successful approach to reducing flaring, and it is unfortunate that we were not able to repeal this duplicative and costly regulation. We have shown time and again that a states-led approach to regulation can build a strong economy while also ensuring good environmental stewardship. Under our state’s venting and flaring requirements, we have successfully reduced flaring from over 35 percent to around 10 percent.”
Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) declared the matter dead as time expired for repealing the rule, according to Bloomberg.