The House leadership is currently setting the table for a very serious run at passage of climate change legislation. Today, the Boston Globe reports that Congressman Edward Markey (D-MA) will be given the Chairmanship of a newly created House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment, a leadership post on issues of energy and environment. Even with all the inevitable shuffling going on as the 111th Congress gets under way, this move stands out as the most recent in a trend that may make balanced energy legislation difficult to come by.
Slowly but surely, House leadership has moved to put Members with a more environmentalist bent into energy leadership positions, stacking the deck with those that share energy agenda priorities with Speaker Nancy Pelosi; folks who in the past haven’t been the friendliest towards oil and natural gas production.
The groundwork for these efforts began to be laid in the aftermath of the Democrat takeover of the House when Speaker Pelosi created the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. At worst, a cynic might say this committee set up a home for an anti-development agenda; at best it created, well, a potential challenge. Seemingly at least, the move was a clear vote of “no confidence” in then Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) by Speaker Pelosi and House leadership.
The other shoe dropped on the more moderate Dingell when he was stripped of his long held Energy and Commerce gavel and the chair was given to environmentalist friendly Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA).
So, to recap, the House Energy and Commerce Committee is now chaired by Waxman and the new Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment is chaired by Markey, big deal, right? Well it is.
Between their respective offices much of the legwork on House climate change legislation will be done. Much of America’s energy policy will be legislated by Members who share not only a passion for the environment but also perhaps a misunderstanding of how some of the more radical parts of the environmental agenda could affect American energy supply and its role in a robust economy. As we continue to seek a comprehensive energy plan for the country, let’s hope these men of power listen to reason and the realities of energy production and its balance with the environment, and not the fringe of their constituencies.
