The chairmen of two key congressional energy committees are making plans for 2009. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), who leads the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Nick J. Rahall (D-W.Va.), who leads the House Natural Resources Committee, separately outlined their strategies.
“My immediate plans for the next several weeks,” Bingaman said, “are to reach out to and consider the ideas of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, and on and off the committee, as we prepare for the next Congress. Then, when the new Congress convenes, I hope to put forward a starting point for energy legislation that will be both bold and broadly supported,” he added in a Nov. 17 address at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Rahall announced on Nov. 21: “Issues relating to oil and gas development off the nation’s coastlines will be front and center in the committee’s agenda…as federal lands and waters are critical to our energy supply and our economy, producing approximately 25% of the nation’s domestically supplied oil and gas.” Equally important, he continued, will be the committee’s continued investigation into federal oil and gas revenue collection procedures and practices.
Differing jurisdictions
The two chairmen described different goals, as their committees have jurisdiction over other areas beyond energy. Both said they would be working closely with the Obama administration.
Bingaman listed main energy challenges facing the next Congress: deploying clean energy technology, improving energy efficiency, maintaining adequate supplies of conventional fuels while the US transitions to newer forms of energy, increasing innovation, making energy markets more transparent, and maintaining a balance between energy and environmental policies, especially those related to global climate change.
“Our energy strategy has to make sure that we have adequate supplies of conventional fuels as we go through that transition.” Bingaman emphasized, “We need an intelligent policy to continue to promote domestic production of oil and natural gas, both onshore and offshore.”
Multiple use mandate
Rahall said his committee also would examine the impact of global climate change on land and water resources. His committee will look at the 1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act’s multiple use mandate because he said it has never fully been realized.
“For too long, and particularly in the last 8 years, development of our public lands has trumped all other facets of what was envisioned as a broad, balanced [US Bureau of Land Management] mandate,” he said.
The two chairmen also emphasized different aspects of controlling carbon. Rahall said his committee will consider ways to implement carbon capture and sequestration because it is the key technology that will allow continued use of US coal resources. Bingaman said his committee also might look at technologies that could be used under a cap-and-trade system.
