WASHINGTON — A fight within the Democratic Party over control of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee in the House of Representatives could influence the outcome of President-elect Barack Obama's efforts to cap the heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming.
Obama has said he wants to act quickly on climate change, but crucial bipartisan support could be tested if liberal California Rep. Henry Waxman succeeds at unseating Chairman John Dingell of Michigan, the panel's top Democrat for 28 years and a major ally of automakers and electric utilities.
The winner will be at the helm of a panel that will spearhead a bill to cap greenhouse gases and establish a multibillion-dollar market in carbon dioxide, with companies buying and selling rights to pollute.
Last month Dingell and Rep. Rick Boucher, also a Democrat, offered a draft global warming bill based on dozens of hearings and white papers for reducing greenhouse gases by 80 percent by 2050, a reduction in line with what Obama has proposed.
Environmentalists and some liberal Democrats, however, see Dingell as an obstacle to stricter fuel economy standards for cars and trucks and cleaner fuels also advocated by Obama.
They see in Waxman, whose district includes swank and liberal Beverly Hills in Los Angeles, an opportunity to push through a more ambitious environmental agenda now that Democrats have expanded their majorities in Congress and will take over the White House.
"We have lost a tremendous amount of time. Rep. Dingell has always opposed bringing the energy and transportation sectors into a more efficient and modern era," said a senior Democratic aide for a member who supports Waxman's coup. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of challenging Dingell, at 82 the longest serving member in the House and one of its biggest power brokers for a quarter-century.
But Dingell's supporters say his global warming draft legislation has a better chance of winning support from some Republicans and conservative Democrats, many of them on his 57-member committee, because it slowly reduces emissions to buy time for necessary technology to develop.
Obama has said he wants to act quickly on climate change, but crucial bipartisan support could be tested if liberal California Rep. Henry Waxman succeeds at unseating Chairman John Dingell of Michigan, the panel's top Democrat for 28 years and a major ally of automakers and electric utilities.
The winner will be at the helm of a panel that will spearhead a bill to cap greenhouse gases and establish a multibillion-dollar market in carbon dioxide, with companies buying and selling rights to pollute.
Last month Dingell and Rep. Rick Boucher, also a Democrat, offered a draft global warming bill based on dozens of hearings and white papers for reducing greenhouse gases by 80 percent by 2050, a reduction in line with what Obama has proposed.
Environmentalists and some liberal Democrats, however, see Dingell as an obstacle to stricter fuel economy standards for cars and trucks and cleaner fuels also advocated by Obama.
They see in Waxman, whose district includes swank and liberal Beverly Hills in Los Angeles, an opportunity to push through a more ambitious environmental agenda now that Democrats have expanded their majorities in Congress and will take over the White House.
"We have lost a tremendous amount of time. Rep. Dingell has always opposed bringing the energy and transportation sectors into a more efficient and modern era," said a senior Democratic aide for a member who supports Waxman's coup. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of challenging Dingell, at 82 the longest serving member in the House and one of its biggest power brokers for a quarter-century.
But Dingell's supporters say his global warming draft legislation has a better chance of winning support from some Republicans and conservative Democrats, many of them on his 57-member committee, because it slowly reduces emissions to buy time for necessary technology to develop.
(AP Published November 8, 2008 11)
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