Senate Rejects Latest Attempt to Roll Back Health and Environmental Protections

WASHINGTON – A majority of the Senate today rejected the latest Republican attempt to roll back public health and environmental safeguards. It kept in place an Obama era standard to limit dangerous methane emissions from oil and gas operations on federal lands.

The following is a statement by Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council:

“After approving a series of measures undoing federal health and environmental protections, a majority of the Republican-controlled Senate at last has come to its collective senses. This failed attempt to advance the interests of big polluters bodes well for when other harmful proposals surface in the coming months, such as the so-called Regulatory Accountability Act, which would stop the government from issuing any future health, consumer or environmental safety protections for Americans.

“Senators John McCain, Lindsay Graham, and Susan Collins joined the Senate Democrats in stopping this misguided effort to use the Congressional Review Act, to put polluters first and the rest of us at risk.”

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The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 2 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world's natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Chicago; Bozeman, Montana; and Beijing. Visit us at www.nrdc.org and follow us on Twitter @NRDC.