The U.S. House voted Friday morning, 221 to 191, to repeal new rules that require those who operate drilling wells on public lands to capture leaked or vented methane.

The  Bureau of Land Management’s Methane Waste Rule put a stop to companies venting the wells into the atmosphere, a practice that was defended by industry in hearings and a court challenge.

Royalties from the captured excess gas are expected to provide millions of dollars for local schools and emergency services. The revenue also would keep methane out of the air. Environmentalists often cite a plume over the Four Corners that can been seen in pictures taken from space.

The oil and gas industry worked with environmentalists to adopt the rules in 2014.

“Congress has taken an extreme action that will undo the progress we have made on clean air here in Colorado by allowing other states to foul our air,” Jessica Goad, a spokeswoman for Conservation Colorado, said after Friday morning’s vote.

Clean-air and public lands proponents now turn their attention to swaying Republican Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado.

“Now, all eyes will be on Sen. Gardner, who has an opportunity to show whether he stands with Washington, D.C. politicians, or with the Colorado way where the oil and gas industry came together with environmental groups to pass similar rules merely three years ago,” Goad added.

Republicans say the rule isn’t necessary – that the atmosphere has gotten cleaner while domestic energy production has ramped up.

A Department of Interior fact sheet states:

Methane, a powerful greenhouse gas about 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide, accounts for nine percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and almost one-third of that is estimated to come from oil and gas operations

Before adoption of the rule, the Department of Interior said local governments are losing $23 million a year as of 2010 in royalties caused by venting and leaks, “enough to supply up to about 740,000 households each year.”

The federal rule is based on the methane rule adopted in Colorado in 2014, which proponents say has reduced emissions, including leaks.

A Colorado College poll this week showed 83 percent of Colorado voters indicated the rule should continue. Eleven percent were for discontinuing it.

Colorado’s four Republican representatives in the House voted for the repeal Friday morning. The state’s three Democratic representatives voted against it.

The Western Energy Alliance, a coalition of businesses that support drilling, sent a letter to Gardner and Colorado’s Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet this week urging them to pass the rollback.

“The venting and flaring rule is ripe for the CRA because it is a clear overreach of BLM’s authority,” Kathleen Sgamma, president at Western Energy Alliance, said in a statement.

“Congress gave EPA and the states authority over air quality control, not BLM, and yet BLM has finalized a rule that puts in place a complex air quality regime. Furthermore, the rule attempts to regulate existing wells, something that even EPA dares not do without first going through the full Clean Air Act process. So this is a double whammy for the federal government; BLM asserts Clean Air Act authority it doesn’t have, yet does an end run around Clean Air Act standards. Western Energy Alliance applauds Congress’s efforts to overturn this federal overreach.”