When the 119th Congress kicks off on Jan. 3, a number of new lawmakers will be sworn in in the House and Senate, including many with notable records on energy and the environment.The incoming group includes those with business experience in energy, lawmakers with records from state legislatures and others who have made promises to prioritize their issues in Congress.This month’s elections gave slim majorities to Republicans in the House and Senate. The exact split in the House is not yet known with a handful of races yet to be called.Here are some of the new members to watch on energy and the environment.Justice will succeed Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat-turned-indepedent who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Manchin, a fossil fuel champion, decided not to run for another term in the increasingly conservative state, but he would have faced long odds if he had.Justice and his family have long been in the coal business, owning numerous mining companies, though he has said he hasn’t been involved with the companies since he became governor in 2017. The companies are in the midst of litigation from the federal government, which accuses them of not paying health and safety fines, charges they are defending.In the Senate, Justice is poised to push a pro-coal agenda, aligning with Trump’s fossil fuel priorities.“Obama and then Biden destroyed the coal industry in the state of West Virginia and all across this country,” he said on Fox Business in July. “For anybody that believes today we can do without fossil fuels, it’s so frivolous it’s unbelievable.”Justice beat Rep. Alex Mooney in the GOP primary for the Senate seat, and easily beat Glenn Elliott, the Democratic mayor of Wheeling, in the general election. Curtis, currently a House member, has been House Republicans’ leading voice on climate change, and founded the Conservative Climate Caucus. He and the caucus do not advocate for or against any particular energy sources, instead focusing on the general need for action.He won a competitive primary in July against a Trump-backed opponent, Trent Staggs, in what conservative climate advocates saw as a victory for their cause. In the general election, he easily beat Democrat Caroline Gleich, a professional skier and a climate activist.In the primary campaign, Curtis didn’t make climate change a front-and-center priority. But he did sometimes talk about the issue, with an emphasis on the positive role he argues the oil and gas industry could play.Curtis’ ascension to the Senate could be a boost for climate policy there amid a Republican trifecta after this month’s elections. Curtis supports keeping at least some of the Inflation Reduction Act’s green energy incentives, and is the lead sponsor of the “Providing Reliable, Objective, Verifiable Emissions Intensity and Transparency (PROVE IT) Act,” which calls on federal officials to study the carbon intensity of various major U.S. products, a potential pr
Lun. Dic 23rd, 2024
