Oil Watchdog

11-20-08 by dugan

Henry Waxman’s close victory today over Rep. John Dingell to chair the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee should mean better days for a U.S. energy policy focused on independence from fossil fuels–though we all know that the oil lobby won’t take it lying down.

Waxman’s victory wasn’t a given, because the ailing, aged Dingell, who represents Michigan, had the support of the auto and energy industries–and of other senior committee chairmen. They could be challenged now by young upstarts like Waxman, who’s just 69 years old and has been in the House for only 34 years (Dingell is 82 and has 52 years in Congress).

Here’s a good, detailed analysis of what this break in the ossified seniority system could mean in Congress, by Ben Pershing on Washingtonpost.com.

An here’s some interesting analysis, from before the final vote, on how Dingell hurt rather than helped the auto industry over the years with his protectionism, and Waxman isn’t the lockstep liberal that Dingell’s allies painted him to be.