Sensenbrenner: Keep House climate panel as a check against EPA

EPA climate rules — which are moving ahead following the collapse of cap-and-trade bills — are shaping up as a top target of House Republicans.

“Now that Republicans have retaken the House, the Select Committee is more qualified than any other Congressional institution to ensure the administration doesn’t bend to unrealistic international demands — and that the EPA doesn’t attempt to do what Congress wouldn’t,” wrote Sensenbrenner, a climate change skeptic.

“Far from being a cost, I believe that by ensuring that environmental concerns are appropriately balanced against economic considerations, the Select Committee will save the country billions of dollars and countless jobs,” he adds.

Sensenbrenner’s piece makes public a plan that he has been pushing behind the scenes. But Sensenbrenner is waging an uphill battle to keep the panel around, and a top GOP lawmaker on energy policy has publicly called for nixing it.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) created the climate panel in 2007 following the 2006 elections that gave Democrats the House majority. Chairman Edward Markey (D-Mass.) has used the Select Committee gavel to bash opponents of climate legislation and rally support for steep emissions cuts. 



The panel has held more than 50 hearings, which have included attacks on oil and coal companies, robust defenses of climate science and the risks of global warming, and promotion of “clean” energy as a major economic engine.