rssWaxman Cleaning House in Energy Committee
Thursday, January 08, 2009 at 4:09 pm
- 29 Comments
Literally.
It was no mystery that Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Cal.) was intent on making environment-friendly changes when he swept the chairmanship of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee from beneath auto-friendly Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) in November. And this week, that house-cleaning began in earnest.
In a reshuffling that will remove several Dingell allies from key environmentally sensitive posts, Waxman melded two E&C subcommittees — the Energy & Air Quality panel and the Environment & Hazardous Materials panel — to form the Energy and Environment subcommittee, of which Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) will be the chairman, the Boston Globe reported today.
Markey, who also heads the House committee on energy independence and global warming, has long been among the most fervent congressional environmentalists, pushing for increased fuel efficiency standards and protection of the Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, among a long list of pet causes.
Displaced in Waxman’s reorganization will be Rep. Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat who has long protected the interests of Big Coal. Boucher, who heads the soon-to-be-disbanded Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee, will instead take control of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, a post currently held by Markey. Rep. Gene Green (D-Tex.), another Dingell ally who now heads the soon-to-be-extinct Environment & Hazardous Materials panel, is apparently out of a chairmanship.
Grist writer David Roberts has a nice wrap-up today of the implications of all this reshuffling:
This gives Markey a one-two punch: he can craft and help pass climate/energy legislation through the Subcommittee while using the Select Committee to educate other committee chairs about how the issue affects their jurisdictions. I can’t think of another committee chair who has the same kind of megaphone with which to drum up support for his own legislation, in the House and among the public.
With this move, Pelosi’s House further cements itself as the likely force for boldness on climate/energy issues in coming years. The Speaker is by all accounts a sincere and committed greenie. She has Waxman at the helm of the relevant committee. She has Markey running the relevant subcommittee and doing education/advocacy. Dingell and his allies — the go-slow lobby — have been cleared away. All systems are go.
29 Comments
Pingback posted January 8, 2009 @ 4:51 pm
[...] Original unknown [...]
Pingback posted January 8, 2009 @ 5:11 pm
[...] in Congress, Democrats, Environment at 2:11 pm by LeisureGuy Great story by Mike Lillis in the Washington Independent: It was no mystery that Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Cal.) was intent on [...]
Comment posted January 8, 2009 @ 6:20 pm
“Displaced in Waxman’s reorganization will be Rep. Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat who has long protected the interests of Big Coal.”
AWESOME!
Pingback posted January 11, 2009 @ 1:19 pm
[...] John Dingell (D-Mich.) in November. And this week, that house-cleaning … fique por dentro clique aqui. Fonte: [...]
Comment posted January 11, 2009 @ 2:06 pm
Now we get to find out why the saying “Hope is not a strategy” is so valid. Hopenchange will utterly fail the people, poverty will become the norm, not the exception, and the people will rise up to toss these nutcakes out of office so a new era of prosperity and happiness can begin again.
Environmentalism kills!
Comment posted January 22, 2009 @ 2:00 am
since when did WashingtonIndependent start using disqus for their comment system?
Comment posted February 24, 2009 @ 10:53 am
Now we can stop the exploration in the arctic and reduce dependence on fuel oil for once.
Comment posted April 6, 2009 @ 3:28 am
<a href=”http://www.pooltilecleaningaz.com “>pool tile cleaning Top pool cleaning company offers professional and quality services to help protect your backyard investment.
Comment posted April 6, 2009 @ 3:33 am
Anglepoise is 50 years old light manufacture company in Manchester. Their business includes manufacture and sale of Anglepoise lights like table lamp, daylight lamps, energy saving lamp etc.
Comment posted April 6, 2009 @ 3:36 am
We offer a range of website design services to cater for all requirements. Whether you're a business start up that is looking for a free website design to provide a low cost professional online presence or a retailer that would like to put their products online, we look at your individual requirements and give you free advice on what solution would be best.
Comment posted April 6, 2009 @ 3:38 am
We offer a range of website design services to cater for all requirements.
Comment posted April 8, 2009 @ 2:23 am
Geoffrey Harris Lighting is a specialist supplier of high quality patio lights, garden lighting, home lighting, ceiling lighting, lutron dimmers and exterior wall lights, in the UK.
Comment posted April 30, 2009 @ 2:29 am
This is quite impressive, I am pleased to read this post, keep posts like this coming, you totally rock!
Comment posted May 10, 2009 @ 10:51 am
very interesting read..
Thanks a lot for sharing.
Comment posted May 10, 2009 @ 9:50 pm
To protect our environment we should reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.Another important step to take to reduce carbon dioxide in the environment is to plant trees and gardening as a hobby is a great way to achieve this.
Comment posted May 11, 2009 @ 5:57 am
Too early for spring cleaning… It surprised me that even Virginia Democrat Rick Boucher was involved in this reshuffling. But, I guess, more changes are to come soon.
Comment posted May 11, 2009 @ 12:57 pm
Too early for spring cleaning… It surprised me that even Virginia Democrat Rick Boucher was involved in this reshuffling. But, I guess, more changes are to come soon.
Comment posted July 9, 2009 @ 9:51 pm
I did not know that, very interesting, glad I found this page :)
Comment posted November 14, 2009 @ 1:13 am
It's a good start to clean “the inside part” first before going to the much complicated next level of the “picture”. Good thing politicians are taking steps to
Comment posted December 11, 2009 @ 7:23 pm
It was bound to happen based on the last election. Nobody should be surprised, if the shoe were on the other foot the republicans would do exactly the same thing.
Comment posted December 12, 2009 @ 12:23 am
It was bound to happen based on the last election. Nobody should be surprised, if the shoe were on the other foot the republicans would do exactly the same thing.
Comment posted September 12, 2010 @ 9:31 pm
Now we get to find out why the saying “Hope is not a strategy” is so valid. Hopenchange will utterly fail the people, poverty will become the norm, not the exception, and the people will rise up to toss these nutcakes out of office so a new era of prosperity and happiness can begin again.
Pingback posted October 30, 2010 @ 4:56 pm
[...] Liberal Democrats did some “house cleaning” at the beginning of this session of Congress which included the ouster of Boucher, considered a moderate, from chairmanship of a key subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce Committee. Step one was the ouster of former Committee Chairman John Dingell, considered unreliable on carbon-tax issues owing to his representation of the Michigan automobile-producing area. Step two was to combine the Energy & Air Quality subcommittee, chaired by Boucher, with the Environment & Hazardous Materials subcommittee to form the new Energy and Environment subcommittee. In step three, reliably liberal Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) was appointed to be the chairman of the new subcommittee, while Boucher was sopped with an essentially useless position on the DTV transition panel. See Waxman Cleaning House in Energy Committee. [...]
Comment posted March 1, 2011 @ 10:28 pm
David Roberts said it good. Markey deserved a punch or two.
Comment posted March 12, 2011 @ 3:44 pm
I don’t know what to say. This blog is fantastic. That’s not really a really huge statement, but it’s all I could come up with after reading this. You know so much about this subject. So much so that you made me want to learn more about it. Your blog is my stepping stone, my friend. Thanks for the heads up on this subject.
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
