Oil state lawmakers to lead the House.
But their roles may not give the energy industry greater influence
By DAVID IVANOVICH
Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- The new leadership slated to run the House of
Representatives over the next two years is dominated by members from the
Oil Patch.
But this new lineup does not necessarily mean the oil and gas industry will
have an easier time pushing its legislative agenda during the 106th Congress,
industry officials and Capitol Hill sources say.
Rep. Bob Livingston, R-La., the man nominated by the Republican caucus to
replace Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., as speaker of the House, is widely viewed as
a friend of the oil and gas industry.
Livingston supported the industry, for instance, in its failed effort to persuade
Congress to ease restrictions on aid to Azerbaijan.
He was actively involved in the negotiations last month that resulted in
lawmakers blocking the U.S. Minerals Management Service from changing
the way it assesses royalty payments for oil produced on federal lands, a
proposal vehemently opposed by the industry.
Rep. J.C. Watts, R-Okla., who unseated Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, to
become the Republicans' new conference chairman, served for four years on
the state agency in Oklahoma that regulates the oil and gas business.
Rep. Dick Armey, R-Irving, who beat three challengers to retain his seat as
majority leader, and Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, who ran unopposed
for majority whip, both hail from the nation's largest oil and gas producing
state.
They have other Republican allies as well. Rep. Bill Archer, R-Houston, will
retain his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee, the House's
tax-writing body, while Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla. is the majority whip in the
Senate.
And on the other side of the aisle, Rep. Martin Frost, D-Dallas, has been
named the No. 3 man in the House Democratic leadership.
While these lawmakers may understand the concerns of the industry more
readily than legislators from other parts of the country, their leadership roles
may limit their ability to champion legislation for the energy industry.
"The speaker, the majority leader, the majority whip, the whole leadership
team has a national constituency," noted Bob Stewart, head of the
Washington-based National Ocean Industries Association, the trade group
for the offshore industry.
"And coming from oil states, I think they may feel obliged to bend over
backwards to not give the appearance of being overly deferential to the
petroleum industry," Stewart said. "There's precedent for that."
Former President Bush, for instance, was an independent oil producer who
co-founded an offshore drilling company.
But during the Bush administration, the industry made no progress on
legislative priorities such as a lifting of the moratoriums on offshore drilling in
areas such as off the California and Florida coasts, or a relaxation of the
drilling ban in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, noted one industry
lobbyist, who asked not to be named.
"They're all very sensitive to the fact that if they appear to be overly friendly,
in policy terms, to the petroleum industry, their political opponents will beat
them to death with it," Stewart said. "They've got to be very careful. I think
our industry would make a great mistake to assume that because the
leadership of the House is from the Oil Patch, that everything is going to be a
bed of roses."
If nothing else, "we are going to have a group of House leaders that
understand the problems of this industry when we get up and talk to them
about it," said Lee Fuller, vice president of government relations for the
Washington-based Independent Petroleum Association of America.
"At least we're not starting from ground zero," Fuller said.
Even with so many lawmakers in leadership positions, the Oil Patch can't
overcome the realities of geography -- only 11 of the 50 states are major oil
and gas producers, noted one Houston industry official.
And it does not erase the poor image the oil industry still has in Washington.
"People just don't know back home what a terrible position the industry has in
Washington," another industry lobbyist said. "All of corporate America has a
bad rap in Washington, but within that, the oil industry is even worse than the
nuclear industry. It's really at the bottom."
The election of this slate of Oil Patch lawmakers "makes the industry's terrible
position a little bit better, a little less terrible," the lobbyist said. |
