Washington, May 11 (IANS): The US Senate has voted to uphold a climate change regulation implemented by former President Barack Obama's administration to control the release of methane from oil and gas wells on public land, the media reported.

Senators on Wednesday voted 51 to 49 to block consideration of a resolution to repeal the 2016 Interior Department rule to curb emissions of methane, a powerful planet-warming greenhouse gas, The New York Times reported.

Republican Senators John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine who have expressed concern about climate change and backed legislation to tackle the issue, broke with their party to join the Democrats and defeat the resolution.

The vote was also the first to unwind regulations approved late in the Obama administration.

"People of America and people of the world can breathe a sigh of relief," said Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer of New York.

"We were surprised and thrilled to win on this," said Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president of the League of Conservation Voters, which, along with other environmental groups, has lobbied the Republicans to vote against the repeal of the methane rule.

"This is clearly a huge win for our health and our climate," The New York Times quoted Sittenfeld as saying.

The methane rule was one of a suite of environmental regulations put in place by Obama as he sought to use his executive authority to tackle climate change across the US.

While methane vented from oil and gas wells accounts for only a small portion of the nation's greenhouse gas pollution, environmental advocates urged Obama to tackle the emissions, because methane is over 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the earth's atmosphere.