Waxman Win Is Boon for Environmentalists, Bust for Utilities

By Lorraine Woellert

Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- A wall-sized poster of Earth hangs in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, an image that Chairman John Dingell once boasted showed the reach of his panel.

Dingell will no longer rule the planet. House Democrats yesterday handed the committee's gavel to Representative Henry Waxman, 69, a Californian who promises a different agenda for a panel that touches nearly every sector of business -- climate change, health care, telecommunications and trade.

Energy providers such as Allegheny Energy Inc. and Exxon Mobil Corp. and polluting industries including carmaker General Motors Corp. and Dow Chemical Co. will be most affected by the leadership shift. Waxman, whose district includes Beverly Hills, has long been at odds over environmental issues with Dingell, 82, a Dearborn, Michigan, lawmaker who during his 52 years in Congress has defended automakers and their unions.

``The champion of the environment has replaced the champion of the automotive industry,'' said Daniel Becker, an environmental lawyer and director of the Safe Climate Campaign in Washington.

House Democrats voted 137-122 for Waxman in a secret ballot. Waxman, who now leads the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told fellow lawmakers that a change in leadership of the energy panel was needed to push through President-elect Barack Obama's agenda when Congress reconvenes in January.

`A New Opportunity'

``We have a new opportunity that maybe comes only once in a generation,'' Waxman said after the vote. ``We must meet the challenge.''

Environmental issues have been a chief focus of Waxman's oversight panel, which has taken aim at greenhouse gas emissions, Environmental Protection Agency decisions and coal pollution.

Waxman's win ``signals a sea change'' in congressional efforts to move global-warming legislation, California Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer said. ``It's going to be a big difference in the sense of having a colleague on the other side rather than someone with whom I disagree.''

Waxman and Massachusetts Representative Edward Markey in March introduced a bill to ban construction of coal-fired power plants that don't limit greenhouse gases. The measure would block states and the EPA from issuing permits for factories that don't capture and store carbon dioxide emissions.

`Hydraulic Fracturing'

Waxman also is a foe of ``hydraulic fracturing,'' a decades-old drilling technique that environmentalists complain threatens the safety of drinking water. Waxman last year held a hearing on the practice, which is regulated by states, and called for tougher oversight.

Obama has promised to spend $15 billion a year to help private industry develop clean energy technology and to institute a cap-and-trade system to reduce emissions 80 percent by 2050.

Waxman and Dingell have demonstrated different approaches to environmental issues.

Dingell sided with the EPA's decision to oppose California's request for a waiver from federal rules so the state could impose more stringent pollution controls on cars. The state's effort was challenged in court by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and opposed by President George W. Bush.

Waxman used his panel to investigate why the agency blocked California's waiver, which would have made the state the first in the nation to limit greenhouse-gas emissions from autos. The investigation uncovered communication between the White House and the EPA's political appointees.

Indecency

Waxman opposed legislation, which Dingell's committee approved, to increase fines in 2005 for broadcast indecency. Broadcasters opposed the bill, which boosted maximum penalties tenfold, to $325,000.

``It increases the power of government to censor programming that some might consider indecent and others might not,'' Waxman said during congressional debate.

Dingell said the bill addressed a ``betrayal of the public trust'' by broadcasters who put ``their own drive for ratings and profits ahead of their responsibilities to the public.''

The fines apply to broadcasters including CBS Corp., News Corp.'s Fox, Walt Disney Co.'s ABC television network and General Electric Co.'s NBC.

The measure passed amid debate over the baring of singer Janet Jackson's breast at the Super Bowl championship football game on CBS in 2004. The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether to uphold the FCC rule.

`More Pragmatic'

On health-care policy, Waxman's policies will be similar to Dingell's, though his style may be different, said Robert Laszewski, an analyst with Health Policy and Strategy Associates in Alexandria, Virginia. ``Waxman is a little more pragmatic,'' he said. ``It increases the likelihood of something happening. They'll be more disciplined and organized.''

Waxman will have a built-in line of communication with the incoming administration: his longtime chief of staff Phil Schiliro is now part of Obama's transition team and will be the administration's chief congressional liaison.

With Waxman as chairman, legislation to address climate change ``will happen faster and smoother,'' said Representative Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat. ``Henry is in a better position to guide it.''

Rough Times Ahead

Waxman's win signals rough times ahead for energy producers, said Thomas J. Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, a free-market research group in Washington.

``Waxman is as liberal as it gets, and he's a very effective legislator,'' Pyle said. For energy providers, Waxman's win creates ``about as hostile a climate as there could possibly be.''

Myron Ebell, director of energy and global warming policy at the free-market Competitive Enterprise Institute, called Waxman's win ``a loud wake-up call to American business leaders that the 111th Congress is not going to play nicely with them.''

Waxman gave Dingell notice of his bid for the Commerce chairmanship in a phone call on Nov. 5, just hours after Obama's win. The battle between the two political veterans divided Democrats, pitting the Rust Belt against Silicon Valley, Big Labor against the new economy, and the party's old guard against relative newcomers.

Waxman has earned a reputation for pit-bull partisanship, a characterization that is more a reflection of his job as oversight chairman than his inclination, said Democrat Gerry Sikorski, a lobbyist at Holland & Knight LLP.

``Henry tends to talk people through things,'' Sikorski said.

Impassioned Rhetoric

Amid his sometimes-impassioned rhetoric, Waxman has a track record of bipartisanship on the oversight committee, working closely with the top Republican, Representative Thomas Davis of Virginia, on government contracting issues.

Waxman perhaps is best known for taking on the tobacco industry in 1994 as chairman of the House Subcommittee on Health and the Environment. His hearings exposed the industry campaign to cast doubt on scientific studies linking smoking to cancer.

Waxman's biggest lifetime donors have been unions and trial lawyers, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Dingell's top lifetime contributors were the automotive industry.

Dingell yesterday congratulated Waxman on his victory, calling 2008 ``clearly a change year.''

Dingell served as the top Democrat on the energy panel for 28 years, as chairman when Democrats were in the majority and as the ranking member when Republicans controlled Congress. He has served in the House since 1955. His wife is the president of the General Motors Foundation.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lorraine Woellert in Washington at lwoellert@bloomberg.net.