The changing of the Republican leadership on the US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is a relatively small consequence of Pete V. Domenici’s deciding not to seek reelection in 2008 for health reasons. But it could have a big impact on the oil and gas industry in Congress.
It’s easy to identify the two bills that Domenici promoted during his 35 years in the Senate that most affected the industry: the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006.
Both became law because of compromises he developed to assure passage. This especially mattered in the second bill. The compromise cut provisions to increase offshore leasing that the House had passed but that the Senate would not.
The final bill retained language initially establishing shares of federal revenues for affected coastal states-crucial to gaining support of senators from Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, and especially Louisiana. It also added 25 miles to a proposed coastal buffer zone that helped end opposition by Florida’s senators.
Consequently, the US Minerals Management Service has begun preparations for federal oil and gas leasing in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
Bipartisan spirit
Domenici and New Mexico’s other US senator, Democrat Jeff Bingaman, made the Energy and Natural Resources Committee more bipartisan than others in the Senate as its chairman and chief minority member. They carried on a tradition I first observed in the early 1990s when Democrat J. Bennett Johnston of Louisiana and Republican James McClure of Idaho held those posts.
Bingaman and Domenici traded jobs earlier this year after Democrats gained a majority in the Senate during the 2006 elections, but they have continued to cooperate.
“Today, and during his entire Senate career, Pete has achieved what all of us try to achieve-that is, to be effective in getting results in Washington while also staying close to the people who have sent us here to represent them,” Bingaman said on the Senate floor after learning of Domenici’s decision.
Next top Republican
An obvious question is who will follow Domenici as the committee’s top Republican. Larry E. Craig of Idaho was No. 2, but he lost his seniority after legal problems in August made his reelection next year questionable. So it’s likelier that Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, who was No. 3, will get the job.
That could be interesting, since she supports not only opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Coastal Plain to oil and gas leasing and constructing a gas pipeline from Alaska to the Lower 48 states but also investment incentives for renewable energy and reform of automotive fuel efficiency standards.
Domenici has 15 more months in office, however, and he’ll likely play a major role in the upcoming House-Senate energy conference. His potential successors on the Senate energy committee and in New Mexico probably will pay close attention.