With Republicans taking control of the Senate on Tuesday, Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma are now in line to hold committee chairmanships in the upper chamber.
Murkowski has largely laid out her policy agenda for the Energy and Natural Resources Committee in a 121-page report she titled “Energy 2020.” Chief among her policy aims will be expanding oil and gas drilling in federal onshore and offshore lands, including the Arctic. Expect Murkowski to pursue oversight on how proposed Obama administration greenhouse gas emissions regulations affect energy supplies, particularly in regions that rely heavily on coal-fired power.
She also will focus on energy exports. She has been a leading advocate of ending 39-year-old restrictions on exporting crude oil, though she likely will spend her time laying groundwork for legislative action on that relatively new policy discussion. But she will be keen to move legislation that speeds approval of natural gas exports to countries that lack free-trade agreements with the United States, which could pass in the next Congress with bipartisan support.
Other measures, such as advancing bipartisan legislation she has sponsored to address nuclear waste storage and pursuing a plan to send some federal offshore drilling revenues to coastal states, also could be on the docket.
Murkowski also will have her hand on the funding lever. She’s in line to head the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, where she could propose slashing funding for Environmental Protection Agency climate change programs and send additional dollars to the Interior Department to more quickly assess mining and drilling permits on federal lands.
Inhofe, who has called climate change a hoax, likely will look to investigate the inner workings of the EPA as chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee. Oversight of EPA efforts — chiefly, its “Waters of the U.S.” rule that conservatives and agricultural interests worry would expand EPA regulatory authority — will likely receive high billing at the committee level.
Inhofe also could put an outside panel of independent scientists that advises the agency, known as the Scientific Advisory Board, under the microscope.
Industry officials and conservatives have increasingly politicized the board over its recommendation that EPA issue a more stringent standard for permissible ozone pollution. They say the tighter standard could cost the economy trillions of dollars, while public health and environmental advocates say those claims are overblown. Supporters suggest it will save billions in healthcare costs by reducing exposure to pollutants linked to heart and respiratory ailments.
Inhofe might decide to focus on more achievable legislative aims since Republican caucus rules limit the nearly 80-year-old senator to two more years as committee chairman.
That could mean changes to the Highway Trust Fund. It is facing insolvency because gains in vehicle fuel efficiency, an economic slowdown and urbanization have restrained revenue from the federal gasoline tax, which supplies the fund.
The Endangered Species Act also might get a look from an Inhofe-led Environment and Public Works panel. The Oklahoma Republican has chastised the Obama administration over its use of the law, which he says has turned swaths of land into zones that are off-limits to energy production.
