Romney energy adviser to face Congress

Harold Hamm, the billionaire oil executive who heads Mitt Romney’s energy advisory team, is scheduled to appear at Senate hearing on energy tax policy next week.

Hamm’s seat among the witnesses at the June 12 Senate Finance Committee hearing could inject a dose – or more – of politics into the wonky session at a time when Romney and President Obama have been trading blows over energy.

Hamm, the CEO of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, isn’t shy about attacking Obama’s energy policies or opening his wallet for Romney – in April he gave $985,000 to Restore Our Future, the super-PAC supporting Romney’s presidential campaign.

Romney announced that Hamm would chair the campaign’s energy policy advisory team in early March.

Other listed witnesses at the hearing are Don Nickles, the former Oklahoma GOP senator who is now CEO of The Nickles Group; Phil Sharp, the former Democratic Indiana congressman who now heads the environmental think tank Resources for the Future; and Harvard University economist Dale Jorgenson.

The title of the hearing is “Tax Reform: Impact on U.S. Energy Policy.”