WASHINGTON — The Republican-controlled Congress voted to repeal a federal fee on oil and gas producers who release high levels of methane, undoing a major piece of then-President Joe Biden’s climate policy aimed at controlling the planet-warming “super pollutant.” The fee, which had not gone into effect, was expected to bring in billions of dollars.

The Senate voted Thursday along party lines 52-47 to repeal the fee, following a similar House vote Wednesday. The measure now goes to President Donald Trump, who is expected to sign it.

Methane is a much stronger global warming gas than carbon dioxide, especially in the short term, and is to blame for about one-third of the world’s warming so far. Oil and gas producers are among the biggest U.S. methane emitters and controlling it is critical to address climate change.

Most major oil and gas companies do not release enough methane to trigger the fee, which is $900 a ton, an amount that would increase to $1,500 by 2026. The measure was part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, but the Environmental Protection Agency didn’t formally set rules until late last year.

That timing made it vulnerable to the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to pass a resolution to undo rules that are finalized toward the end of a president’s term. If those resolutions pass and the president signs them, the rule is terminated and agencies can’t issue a similar one again.

“It’s a sorry testament to the influence of Big Oil on Capitol Hill that one of the top priorities of Congress is a blatant handout to the worst actors in the fossil fuel industry,” said Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s energy program.

The American Petroleum Institute, the largest lobbying group for the oil and gas industry, applauded the move, calling the fee a “duplicative, punitive tax on American energy production that stifles innovation.”

Globally, methane concentrations in the atmosphere have been steadily climbing.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who chairs the Senate’s Environment and Public Works committee, spoke in favor of repeal on the Senate floor.

“We should be expanding natural gas production, not restricting it. Instead, the natural gas tax will constrain American natural gas production, leading to increased energy prices,” she said.

When gas leaks, the producer is wasting gas it could keep and sell.

“Republicans are helping out the absolutely worst offenders of methane leakage,’’ said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the environment panel. “The companies only pay the methane fee if they don’t meet their own industry standard for ... avoiding leaks of a dangerous ... greenhouse gas.”

The fee on methane releases was aimed at pushing companies to adopt better practices to curb emissions and make their operations more efficient. The EPA had said the fee was expected to reduce 1.2 million metric tons of methane emissions by 2035 — that’s about the same as removing 8 million cars from the road for a year.