What Will the New Congress Do With Environmental Policy?

With the makeup of Congress taking a dramatic shift after this most recent election, leadership in the Senate is going to change as well, with Republicans filling seats once held by Democratic senators. The Senate Majority Leadership, which will go to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in all likelihood, has so far gotten a great deal of attention, but it isn’t the only position change that will have important consequences. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) will be taking lead on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and with backing from her fellow Republican Sen. Mary Landrieu never had, any changes in energy policy will be particularly noticeable. Murkowski’s first efforts as head of the Committee will likely be both local and national. Locally, there’s the road through an Alaskan federal wildlife refuge that she’s in favor of and that her new position will likely help her push forward on in opposition to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. On the national level, her intentions are predictable, and actually similar to her predecessor’s, but while Landrieu failed time and time again to pass legislation approving the Keystone XL Pipeline and other energy initiatives, Murkowski may succeed. McConnell spoke with Time on “Some examples of things that we’re very likely to be voting on” and listed “approving the Keystone XL pipeline” as just one likely to be brought up. The effectiveness of some energy industry policies (one could even argue all) — including the Keystone XL Pipeline — is usually controversial, with different groups arguing for different environmental outcomes. While some say that the Keystone XL might have detrimental effects and that for the sake of reducing environmental damage, it should be avoided, others argue that by not building and utilizing the pipeline the U.S. would open doors for other less clean systems and energy forms. It ultimately ends up being a back and forth on whether the economic advantage is worth whatever measure of environmental damage would result — and this is usually disputed or uncertain...more