Barton vows probe of White House policies in move for Energy gavel

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) is vowing to quickly probe White House environmental policies he calls economically harmful if he becomes chairman of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee next year.

Barton is the panel's senior Republican and a former chair, but Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) is considered the front-runner for the gavel if Republicans reclaim the House.

But Barton used a new Washington Times column to make his case for another term as chairman.

Barton — a climate skeptic and advocate of expanded drilling — says he would undertake a wide-ranging investigation of Obama administration decisions on healthcare, global warming, communications and other matters.

His column lists 10 items he would "uncover" during the first six months of 2011, part of what he calls a longer list of matters deserving committee scrutiny.

The items include why Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson "proudly refuses to analyze her agency's actions to determine either the potential job losses [they] will cause or the pressure they will put on U.S. companies to relocate overseas."

Barton recently alleged in a letter to EPA that the agency was not adequately considering the economic effects of looming Clean Air Act rules.

Barton also writes in the new column that he would probe why the chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality "doesn't appear to know what her responsibility is under the president's State of the Union promise that 'jobs must be our No. 1 focus.'"

Barton was politically damaged by his now-infamous apology to BP in June, which he quickly retracted under pressure from GOP leadership.

But his column notes that if Republicans regain power, he will "ask my colleagues for the privilege of serving as chairman of the committee I love."

He charges that congressional Democrats "lost their enthusiasm for oversight" when President Obama took office.

"I know they did because I have been pressing all year for the Obama administration to explain how implementation of the president's health care law is faring and why his environmental team seems to care more for United Nations opinions than working families and a faltering economy, and for the Democratic leaders of Congress to inquire," Barton writes.

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