Henry Waxman did it. Waxman beats Dingell to chair energy committee is the story from Reuters. In a secret ballot vote of 137 to 122, the Democratic Caucus in the US House of Representatives voted to install a smart, tough, progressive to the chair of the most significant committee (in the House) by far for the critical climate change and energy legislation that is looming in the next Congress. For all the political punditry on this about Nancy Pelosi’s influence, and the Old Seniority System coming under fire, and the Blue Dogs vs the Freshmen etc, etc, I think there’s another subtext. (Don’t get me wrong about the punditry here. Some of the analyses have been very interesting.)
The big story here, for my money, is that the House is going to be dead serious about the life-and-death issues of energy, the environment and global warming. Waxman has already offered stronger legislation on climate change than the draft that we’ve seen come out of Energy and Commerce. Waxman, when he was chairman of the Health and Environment Subcommittee from 1979 to 1994, championed tough environmental legislation, and often had to battle with John Dingell tooth and nail to get it through. This vote indicates that the House Democrats want legislation that is going to be better and, frankly, less given to cater to the special interests of Detroit, the extractive industries and the utilities. The House Democrats, many of whom are going to be Freshmen and Sophmores, want to push the edge of the envelope. I think Nancy Pelosi wants that. I think Barack Obama and many Senate Democrats do too. There are, to be sure, any number of Republicans in the House and Senate who want smart, tough legislation going forward as well.
Henry Waxman’s election as the new Chair of Energy and Commerce is a stunning, hopeful signal that we’re going to get a lot of this stuff right. It means there’s not only the will to get this done, but that we’re lining up the right thinking and the best thinkers.