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Despite losses for some lawmakers, most energy leaders on Capitol Hill will return to the U.S. Congress in 2019 following the Nov. 6 midterm elections.
But control of energy-relevant committees in the U.S. House of Representatives still will change since Democrats won the majority of seats in that chamber.
The ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., who beat his GOP challenger in the midterms, is expected to take over control of the committee from current Chairman U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., who also triumphed in his House race. Under Democrats' rule, the committee is expected to pursue vigorous oversight of the Trump administration's efforts to weaken environmental rules for the energy sector and could probe the administration's attempts to mandate financial support for financially struggling coal-fired and nuclear power plants.
House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., also won re-election Nov. 6, paving the way for him to lead that committee, which has jurisdiction over energy production on federal lands and several broad environmental laws applying to energy producers.
Despite Democrats' victory in taking control of the House, Republicans held onto and expanded their majority in the U.S. Senate, meaning committee leaders there are set to remain in place. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, was not up for re-election, while Ranking Member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., easily defeated her Republican challenger.
Turning to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, both Chairman John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and Ranking Member Tom Carper, D-Del., defeated their respective challengers, allowing them to hold onto their leadership positions on the committee.
Other victories
In addition to key committee leaders, other energy luminaries in Congress will remain there.
West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin kept his spot in the Senate, triumphing over his Republican challenger, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey. Manchin has been a vocal defender of his state's coal industry, asking President Donald Trump in April to consider using emergency national defense and energy laws to prevent further retirements of financially struggling coal-fired power plants.
U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., speaks at a United Mine Workers of America rally in Washington, D.C., in April 2017. |
Also in the Senate, Republican Marsha Blackburn won a tough contest against former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen for the Tennessee Senate seat now held by retiring Sen. Bob Corker. Blackburn, who currently is a U.S. House member, previously proposed curtailing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's budget and raised concerns over coal plant closures.
Two sitting GOP House lawmakers with big roles in energy policy also prevailed in close races, although their ability to influence policy will diminish next Congress with a Democratic majority.
Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee's energy subcommittee, narrowly defeated his Democratic opponent. U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., a long-time champion of hydropower development, also beat her Democratic challenger for Washington's 5th congressional district. McMorris Rodgers chairs the House Republican Conference, making her the fourth highest-ranking Republican in the House. She also serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and founded the Congressional Hydropower Caucus.
Incumbent losses
Not all leading energy voices in Congress will return in 2019, however.
Moderate U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., lost her Senate re-election bid to U.S. House member Kevin Cramer, a Republican. Heitkamp has been a major advocate for carbon capture and sequestration, or CCS, research and deployment, sponsoring legislation to extend CCS tax credits and promote research and development of the technology. Supporters see CCS deployment as a key factor in maintaining coal generation in a carbon-constrained economy.
But Cramer also is expected to defend coal producers' interests in the Senate, with the North Dakota lawmaker closely aligned with Trump's push to ease the coal industry's regulatory requirements.
In the House, incumbent U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., lost his race against Democratic challenger Debbie Mucarsel-Powell for Florida's 26th congressional district near Miami.
House Climate Solutions Caucus co-founder U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., lost his re-election race Nov. 6. |
In 2016, Curbelo co-founded the House's Climate Solutions Caucus, the first bipartisan caucus in Congress focused on climate change. More recently, he introduced legislation to create a $24/tonne tax on carbon dioxide emissions from all fossil fuel combustion sources starting in 2020. In exchange, the bill would limit the EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources under the Clean Air Act.
But many environmental groups and climate action advocates said Curbelo's caucus has only served to give political cover to GOP lawmakers in areas sensitive to climate change, pointing to some GOP members' poor voting record on advancing climate-related legislation. The group's membership took a big hit in the Nov. 6 elections, when several GOP caucus members lost re-election. Currently the caucus is designed to be equally split between Republican and Democratic lawmakers.
Curbelo's successor Mucarsel-Powell has called Florida "ground zero" for climate change, and environmental groups expect her to be more aggressive on the issue than Curbelo.
In other key House races for energy, Democratic candidate Sean Casten defeated incumbent GOP Rep. Peter Roskam for Illinois' 6th House district. Roskam, who has been one of the American Public Power Association political action committee's biggest recipients of campaign funding this election cycle, is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and critic of the Obama administration's air and water quality regulations for energy producers.
By contrast, Casten is an advocate for regulations to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and has proposed forming a "Fossil Energy Reduction Standard" that would require an increasing percentage of power to come from non-fossil fuel resources.
Undecided
One key congressional race has yet to be decided. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., asked for a recount of his extremely close race against GOP Florida Gov. Rick Scott. With all districts reporting, Nelson received 49.9% of votes to Scott's 50.1%, according to the Associated Press as of 10:25 a.m. ET on Nov. 8. Under Florida law, a machine recount automatically is triggered when the margin of victory is 0.5% or less.
Both Nelson and Scott have moved to block oil and gas drilling off Florida's coasts. Nelson has also been a big proponent of policies to address climate change. But environmental groups have blasted Scott for his work as governor to gut key pieces of a Florida law that required state agencies to develop frameworks for a renewable portfolio standard and a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program.



