Republicans leading House environmental committees: Who are they?
The US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Following the midterm elections in November, President Joe Biden faces a GOP-controlled House of Representatives largely opposed to the administration’s climate change and clean energy policies and efforts to curb the country’s dependence on fossil fuel production.
Although Republicans have a slim majority in the House, newly GOP-led committees have started to launch oversight of the administration’s climate agenda and have unveiled legislation aimed to maintain or increase fossil fuel production.
It’s unlikely that Republicans will advance major legislation to the president’s desk, but they will conduct oversight hearings on climate and energy legislation and attempt to redirect funding for climate programs under the historic Inflation Reduction Act.
Meet the three Republicans who are now leading key House environmental and climate committees:
Bruce Westerman, chair of House Committee on Natural Resources
Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., speaks during a news conference in the Capitol Visitor Center on the Save Our Sequoias Act, that aims to protect the trees from wildfires on Thursday, June 23, 2022.
Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
House Republicans selected Westerman to lead the committee that oversees the Interior Department and the Forest Service and plays a role in dictating policy on issues like mineral resources, wildlife conservation, mining and irrigation.
Westerman, a representative for Arkansas’s fourth congressional district, has a background in engineering and is a licensed forester. He’s argued the country should focus on advancing technology such as nuclear power and carbon sequestration to address climate change, rather than aggressively limiting the country’s fossil fuel production. He’s also introduced legislation to plant 1 trillion trees globally by 2050 in order to pull carbon out of the atmosphere.
As the Natural Resources Committee chair, Westerman said he would focus on conducting oversight of the Interior Department’s proposed five-year plan for new offshore oil and gas leases in federal waters. The proposal would block all new drilling in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans within U.S. waters but allow some lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and the south coast of Alaska.
“We’re going to be using a lot of oil and gas for the foreseeable future,” Westerman said in a phone interview with CNBC. “Under this administration, they have attacked U.S. production on federal land. That is bad policy, it’s not following the law, and we plan to have oversight.”
Westerman also said he’s open to working with West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat, on bipartisan permitting reforms for the country’s energy projects. Such legislation includes Westerman’s Building U.S. Infrastructure through Limited Delays and Efficient Reviews (BUILDER) Act, which aims to speed up the review process for energy projects under the…
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