Matheson defending House energy chairman

The U.S. House has only one real fight over a leadership spot this year — and Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, is rushing in with his political sword and shield to defend a committee chairman being challenged as not friendly enough to the environment.

Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., is the current chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, but he is being challenged for that spot by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif. Waxman's allies have said Dingell, as a defender of Michigan's auto industry, has too often been a thorn in the side of environmental and clean-energy advocates.

Matheson, a member of the committee and admirer of Dingell, has volunteered to call other Democrats in Congress and given interviews to the national press to help defend him.

Matheson told the Deseret News, "I think as a chairman, he has shown an ability to look five or six moves ahead and get bills singed into law, a skill that we need nor more than ever as we look at key issues like energy, health care and telecommunications."

While some Democrats have challenged whether Dingell will do enough on such items as global warming, Matheson told Congressional Quarterly, "Climate change is clearly an unbelievably complicated set of issues, and one of the ways you get it right is you build consensus. He's trying to build a consensus-driven piece of legislation."

Waxman is currently chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, an investigative committee. He likely seeks to chair the energy committee because it will be involved in some of the hottest bills expected in the next Congress, from health-care reform to energy policy.

The Democratic members of the House are expected to vote on that leadership battle later this week.

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