The US House of Representatives on Friday voted 229-191 to rescind a 2020 rule promulgated by the Trump administration which removed limitations on methane emissions under the Clean Air Act from the oil and natural gas sector. The Senate voted 52-42 to do the same in April.

The House passed the resolution using the Congressional Review Act (CRA); its first time since convening for its first session. The CRA authorizes lawmakers to abolish any regulation within 60 legislative days of its finalization by a simple majority vote.

In 2018, former US President Donald Trump and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced plans to weaken methane emissions standards for the oil and gas industry, seeking to cut costs and “decrease unnecessary burdens on domestic energy producers,” including leak detection and repair. The EPA proposed the new “Methane Rule” in August 2019 and it went into effect a year later.

Joint Resolution 14, originally introduced by New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich, provides official “congressional disapproval” of Trump’s methane rule. It passed with some bipartisan support in both the Senate and the House.

A stricter 2016 EPA rule will again become the new standard, now that both houses of Congress have voted to reverse the Trump-era rule. The 2016 rule, implemented by the Obama-Biden administration, requires oil and gas companies to plug and capture methane leaks from new and modified drilling wells and storage tanks in addition to older, existing wells. It also has a goal of cutting methane emissions from the oil and gas sector by 40 to 50 percent from 2012 levels by 2025.

According to a recent report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), global methane—the main ingredient in natural gas—and carbon dioxide levels are “now higher than at any time in the past 3.6 million years.” Atmospheric methane is primarily generated by fossil fuel development and use, as well as organic matter decay and as a byproduct of livestock farming.

In an April hearing, current EPA Administrator Michael Regan told lawmakers that the agency hopes to propose its own,  stricter rule for reducing methane emissions in accordance with President Joe Biden’s climate targets emissions no later than September.

The joint resolution now awaits President Biden’s signature.