By JEREMY DILLON, ANDY VAN WYE, and ELVINA NAWAGUNA, CQ Roll Call

Sen. John McCain was thought to be a yes. But he says he was always a no. In the end, the Arizona Republican helped sink a resolution to upend an Obama administration climate change policy.

Republicans said they believed on Wednesday morning that they had the votes to pass the Congressional Review Act resolution that would undo an Interior Department regulation limiting the release of methane from oil and gas operations on federal land.

But a procedural motion to advance the resolution was defeated, 49-51. Three Republicans, including McCain, voted “no.” And the first of 15 CRA resolutions considered by Congress this year went down.

“One person surprised everybody,” Oklahoma GOP Sen. James M. Inhofe, a senior Environment and Public Works Committee member, said of McCain’s vote against the CRA. “I was very certain the votes were there because we wouldn’t bring it up if the votes weren’t there.”