E2-Wire

National Association of Manufacturers President John Engler said he’s confident that the Republicans’ ascendance in Congress will boost legislation to block Environmental Protection Agency climate change rules.

An array of business groups want to delay or scuttle EPA restrictions on greenhouse gases from power plants, factories and other sources that begin taking effect next year.

“I think you are going to have considerable oversight in this whole area. I would expect the Republican majority of the House to be more aggressive in asserting congressional prerogative to make the policy in these areas,” Engler said on a conference call with reporters Wednesday, the morning after Republicans recaptured the House and made gains in the Senate.

Some insta-nalysis from the consulting shop ClearView Energy Partners in a research note this morning:

“Party shifts as a wake-up call for the White House (and statehouse) green agenda. Last night, eight states President Obama won in 2008 replaced either a Senate or Gubernatorial Democrat with a Republican, representing a total of 112 electoral college votes (270 are needed to win a presidential contest), a decisive shift . . . Five of these states are major fossil energy producers (IL, IN, NM and PA); three are highly dependent on fossil fuels for power and industry (MI, OH and WI); and one is the ethanol capital of the United States (IA), as well as the first campaign stop for candidates seeking the Oval Office. These ‘battleground’ shifts spell out local headwinds for green and clean sources, too, as cash-strapped statehouses make tough spending choices, without the big payout of no-cost emissions allowances by a cap-and-trade bill.”

The ghost of former Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) — who as head of the House Resources Committee was a major foe of environmental groups — is hovering over two Democratic seats Republicans may end up picking up out West.

Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.) — the former wind turbine company CEO who defeated Pombo four years ago — may have won the tightest race of the evening. With all precincts reporting, McNerney was up by 121 votes over Republican David Harmer out of more than 164,000 cast. The margin of McNerney’s apparent victory could spark a recount.

Former Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) — a former top lieutenant for Pombo on the Resources panel — had a far easier time winning back his old seat by beating freshman Democratic Rep. Harry Teague by about 18,000 votes and roughly 11 percentage points. He vacated the seat when he unsuccessfully ran for the Senate in 2008.

McNerney’s victory over Pombo in 2006 came amid a huge effort by green groups to defeat their biggest enemy that year: a former rancher and ardent defender of property rights who delighted in trying to weaken endangered-species protections and allow oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and offshore.

The oil and gas sector, unsurprisingly, was the biggest industry contributor to Pearce’s effort to knock off Teague.

The Defenders of Wildlife contributed the most independent expenditures to help McNerney in his race as of Oct. 25, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

While the fight over who will reside in the next Congress has mostly been
 decided, the battle over what that will mean is just beginning.



One day after Republicans swept to power in the House and tightened 
Democratic control to a slim majority in the Senate, environmental and 
industry groups will give their spin on how their issues will fare in 
the next two years and how they affected Tuesday night’s results.



Environmental groups lost many of their Democratic congressional
 defenders in what proved a very tough night for House members who supported the 2009 cap-and-trade bill. But allies like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara 
Boxer (D-Calif.) survived two of the toughest challenges they have ever 
faced.



In the meantime, watch this space today for continued election coverage.

Republican Carly Fiorina is refusing to concede in her effort to oust Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).

Major news outlets — including Fox News, NBC, CNN and the Los Angeles Times — have projected Boxer as the winner.

“But all those people that have already declared this race, maybe that wasn’t a smart thing to do,” Fiorina told her followers in the wee hours Wednesday when about a third of the votes had been counted. “And we are in a dead heat,” she said. “So the facts are it is too close to call and it’s going to be a long night.”

Boxer noted to her supporters at a simultaneous rally that media outlets had quickly declared her the winner earlier that night “and we’re going to win this race.”

“We just pulled out to a several point lead and that’s before L.A.’s in and that’s before Alameda County is in,” Boxer added. “And so I am thrilled.”

She thanked her supporters for helping her win “the toughest and roughest campaign of my life.”

Environmentalists and GOP strategists disagree over whether climate change was a major factor in the House Democrats' defeat.

A high-profile California ballot initiative that would have essentially killed the state’s global warming law was heading for a big defeat early Wednesday.
 
The defeat of Proposition 23 is a major victory for environmentalists and Silicon Valley capitalists, who battled oil companies that backed the measure in a fight that saw both sides spend millions of dollars.
 
But the night also brought a potentially troubling development for climate advocates. A separate California ballot initiative called Proposition 26 — which green groups contend would cut off crucial funding for the state climate law — was projected to win.

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) will beat Republican Carly Fiorina and win another six-year term, according to separate projections by Fox News, NBC and the Los Angeles Times. 

Critics have labeled both Boxer and Fiorina extremists. Boxer led a heavily partisan effort to enact climate change legislation and was booted from her leadership role in that effort, while Fiorina is skeptical that climate change is even occurring. Boxer has been helped by campaign appearances from President Obama and Vice President Biden and a fundraising and spending advantage.

A Boxer victory could preserve two things for Democrats in the next Congress: a slim majority overall in the Senate and a potentially combative environmental debate on the Environment and Public Works Committee. 

Boxer’s hometown newspaper, The San Francisco Chronicle, made a surprising non-endorsement in the race, citing her combative style as a reason she was not given the lead in trying to craft a bipartisan deal on climate policy this Congress.

Boxer, though, successfully hit Fiorina on social issues — such as the Republican’s stance in opposition to abortion rights — in securing a strong early lead among female voters. Fiorina tried to appeal to centrists by focusing on economic issues, including the state’s unemployment rate, the third highest in the nation.

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) is ready to run for chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, he told The Hill.

Barton, who made waves when he apologized to the head of BP for enduring a "shake-down" by the White House during the Gulf Coast oil spill, said he's prepared to challenge a nearly decade old rule to go for the top spot on the energy panel.

Under current House GOP rules, a lawmaker can serve only three consecutive terms atop a committee. Barton served one term as Energy and Commerce chairman before assuming the role of ranking member, when Democrats won control of the House in 2006. He served two terms in that position but says his time as ranking member shouldn't count against him in his quest to regain the gavel.

He says he will seek a waiver of that rule, adopted in 1993, for the 112th Congress under what is expected to be a GOP majority.

Barton's outburst during a summertime hearing, for which the senior Texan was reprimanded by leadership, including Speaker-in-waiting John Boehner, seemed to doom his goal of reclaiming the gavel.

But since the time he apologized for making the outburst, Barton has raised a lot of money for GOP candidates and intends to appeal to the GOP Steering Committee for a waiver.

He will face a growing field of senior House GOP lawmakers with their sights set on serving atop the powerful Energy and Commerce panel, including Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) and Fred Upton (R-Mich.)

Barton had said in a recent op-ed that if Republicans won the House he would "ask my colleagues for the privilege of serving as chairman of the committee I love."