Proponents of a movement to quash an Obama-era rule regulating methane emissions from oil and gas production sites on federal lands lost their battle May 10 when the U.S. Senate failed to take action that would have undone the rule.

The law, which took effect in January, requires operators to take various actions to reduce waste of natural gas such as limiting routine flaring and using equipment to detect leaks, among other requirements. It also establishes criteria for when flared gas qualifies as waste and when it is subject to royalties.

The House voted in February to repeal the rule known as the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) methane rule. However, the mostly Republican-backed House Joint Resolution 36 failed to get enough votes to proceed in the Senate. Democrats halted the repeal in a 51-49 vote with help from Republican senators John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine. The move involved using the Congressional Review Act, which grants legislators power to undo executive orders by the previous administration.

“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,” McCain said in a statement May 10.

Calling the control of methane emissions an “important public health and air quality issue,” McCain said the public interest would be better served if the Interior Department revised and improved the rule.

The repeal was something industry groups had been pushing and were optimistic that it would succeed with a new administration in the White House. The Senate vote was met with disappointment by groups such as the American Petroleum Institute (API), which has called the rule unnecessary, considering methane emissions from all petroleum systems have fallen by more than 28% since 1990.

RELATED: Fracking Leads To Lowest Emissions In Quarter Century

“America’s natural gas and oil industry supports common sense regulation, but the BLM’s technically flawed rule on methane emissions is an unnecessary and costly misstep,” Erik Milito, API’s upstream and industry operations group director, said in a statement. “The rule could impede U.S. energy production while reducing local and federal government revenues.”

Similar sentiments were shared by the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA).

“This overreaching rule puts independent producers—many of which are small family-run businesses with limited resources—on the hook for complying with the costly burdens of a flawed regulation,” IPAA President and CEO Barry Russell said. “This regulation will particularly impact small-producing, marginal wells located on federal lands. Shutting in these smaller wells means less royalties will get sent back to the federal Treasury. These federal dollars are vital for many western economies and are used to fund state and local priorities, such as education and infrastructure projects like roads and bridges.”

The API cited analysis by Environmental Resources Management on the proposed rule that revealed up to 40% of the wells that flare on federal lands could become uneconomic to produce.

“Based on 2016 royalties reported by the federal Office of Natural Resources Revenue, even a 1% loss of royalties due to loss of production would result in lost government revenues of more than $14 million,” the API said.

Despite the regulatory battle, many companies have made it their goals to reduce emissions regardless. They’ve put in place leak detection and repair programs, green completions and intermittent-bleed or no-bleed controllers.

RELATED: Politics Aside, Methane Emissions-Fighting Mission Continues

Most of the nation’s oil and gas is produced on state and local land. The law applies to federal and tribal lands.

The rule focuses on certain areas that the BLM said it believed would be the most effective and least costly:

  • Venting and flaring of association gas from development oil wells;
  • Gas leaks from equipment;
  • Operation of high-bleed pneumatic controllers and certain pneumatic pumps;
  • Gas emissions from storage vessels;
  • Downhole well maintenance and liquids unloading, and
  • Well drilling and completions.

Not everyone was disappointed by the Senate vote.

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), which works with several oil and gas companies on ways to lower emissions and improve air quality, called it a win for taxpayers and families.

“Americans don’t want to waste public resources—and they want clean air, clean water and less pollution. The oil and gas industry and the Trump administration fundamentally misread the mood of the American people and today the U.S. Senate listened to the voters,” EDF President Fred Krupp said in a statement. “We are grateful to those who stood up for common sense. There are many difficult fights ahead, but this an important moment in the effort to protect American taxpayers and families from this administration’s reckless attack on our bipartisan tradition of environmental protection.”

The EDF said oil and gas companies on federal or tribal land waste nearly 110 billion cubic feet of gas annually via leaks, venting and flaring.

Had the rule been rescinded, the Western Values Project estimated the U.S. Treasury would have lost out on $800 million in lost potential royalties from leaked or vented natural gas over the next decade, according to a Reuters report.

But the issue may not be over. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., called on Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to act unilaterally to revoke it, the news agency said.

RELATED: President’s Order Rolls Back Climate Change Rules

Velda Addison can be reached at vaddison@hartenergy.com or @VeldaAddison.