When the Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred in 2010, Texas Republican Rep. Michael Burgess was the ranking member on the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

"We all became junior petroleum engineers in a pretty short period of time, but I was very much on the firing line when Ed Markey and Henry Waxman went after every petroleum producer in the country with an inclination to shut [offshore drilling] down," Burgess recalled in a recent interview with E&E News.

He pointed out how the Democrats' regulatory push — including from then Reps. Markey of Massachusetts and Waxman of California, who chaired Energy and Commerce until 2011 — fell short.

Now, a decade later, Burgess is a leading candidate to become the top Republican on the committee in the next Congress.

The Texan's approach to the Gulf Coast disaster offers clues to how Burgess would help oversee the energy industry and how he would deal with Democrats pushing for new rules on climate change and other environmental concerns.

He's a free market conservative who drives a hybrid car but has also been a top foe of lightbulb efficiency standards.

"I would approach the job with a healthy respect for what the industry has brought us and what the industry has done for us," said Burgess, who says a move toward energy independence for the United States in recent years has boosted the economy and made the nation more secure.

Burgess will be the most senior Energy and Commerce Republican next year, not counting Michigan's Fred Upton, who has already been chairman. Reps. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), the current ranking member, and John Shimkus (R-Ill.) are retiring.

Burgess' deep experience in legislating on Energy and Commerce is his chief argument for taking the reins of a committee he describes as vital to restoring a U.S. economy hit hard by a pandemic.

"Like 40% of our economy comes through the Energy and Commerce Committee. I want to be the catalyst to restart our economy to rebuild our economy," said Burgess, noting he has already been the top Republican on the Health, Oversight & Investigation, and Commerce & Manufacturing subcommittees.

'I want you competing for this'

Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) greeting Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette during a hearing this summer. Francis Chung/E&E News

Burgess' main opponent is Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), the current ranking member on the panel's Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce.

Ohio Republican Rep. Bob Latta is also considering a run, although he's unlikely to leapfrog the two more senior members.

McMorris Rodgers has touted her own experience, communications skills and political connections, saying recently that Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) encouraged her to enter the race (E&E Daily, Sept. 15).

Burgess said he also recently chatted with McCarthy about the issue. Burgess said the leader encouraged him to run and promised not to take sides.

Burgess said the House's top Republican told him, "I want you competing for this. You're a valuable member of the committee. You know your stuff. You show up on time. You do the work. You need to offer your credentials."

McCarthy's view matters. The next top E&C Republican will be picked by the 30 members of the House Republican Steering Committee, a panel where party leaders often hold sway and McCarthy's neutrality suggests a tight contest.

The steering committee will vote after hearing closed-door pitches from candidates during the coming lame-duck session. Their recommendation would then have to be ratified by the full GOP caucus.

Both Burgess and McMorris Rodgers have begun campaigning for the job but have sidestepped most questions about their outreach and other efforts, saying their main goal now is to help the GOP win back the House in next month's election.

Burgess did say some of his biggest supporters are GOP women, a tacit acknowledgement that McMorris Rodgers could benefit from a House Republican caucus eager to have female lawmakers in top committee slots.

But he added, "On the Republican side we're not supposed to subscribe to identity politics like they do on the other side. Sure enough it enters into people's calculation."

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), one of the House's most senior female lawmakers and the top Education and Labor Committee Republican, said she's backing Burgess because of his experience and would "hate to think" any female Republicans, including herself, got committee posts simply because of their gender.

"I don't think there is any comparison [between the two candidates]. Dr. Burgess has the depth of experience. She may have that, too. I just have not seen it," said Foxx, who has served on the Rules Committee with Burgess.

"They both have great personalities, and they're very pleasant people to be around," Foxx said of Rodgers, who used to chair the Republican Conference.

"But I can't, I can't really tell you about her experiences and her knowledge, because I haven't seen it exhibited on the floor, or we haven't served on a committee together," she said.

Conservative record

Burgess decided to run for Congress in late 2001, saying he felt a call to public service after the Sept. 11 attacks.

He recalls Googling< "how to run for Congress" when his northern Texas district's longtime representative, Republican Dick Armey, announced he was retiring.

In Burgess' first campaign, his wit and ability to take a hard line first surfaced when he beat Armey's son, Scott, by wooing voters with fliers that said, "My Dad is not Dick Armey."

Burgess, 69, a former obstetrician and gynecologist, is best known on Capitol Hill as one of his party's most vocal and skillful critics of Obamacare.

His views on limited government have played out in the energy and environmental arena, too, and those positions foreshadow the policies he'd favor as the top E&C Republican.

I don't know that all of the evidence is in.

Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) on manmade climate change.

Burgess — who has a 3% lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters and a 93% rating from the American Conservative Union — acknowledges a changing climate but stops short of blaming it on human activity.

"I do believe the climate is changing. And I think the historical record, the geologic record is pretty clear that the climate has always changed," he said.

"Is there is a man-made component to that? I don't know that all of the evidence is in. I do know that there is no reason not to be a good steward of the environment and we should always strive for that," he said.

Burgess believes that if the Waxman-Markey, cap-and-trade bill had become law in 2009, carbon emissions would be at higher levels than they are today.

Like many Republicans, he believes in giving the private sector the ability to develop technologies that can reduce carbon emissions rather than setting specific federal mandates.

"It is possible to achieve through innovation some of the things that you are trying to achieve through government regulation. And you actually benefit more people if you allow the innovation route rather than the regulation route, which tends to be very restrictive and cause a scarcity on resource availability," he said.

Burgess said he favors pursuing carbon sequestration technologies for all types of power plants, including coal-fired and natural gas operations.

He also said the country cannot move toward a carbon-free future without nuclear power, noting he is interested in small-scale nuclear production and favors a national nuclear waste repository site at Yucca Mountain, Nev.

Burgess is also an ally of traditional fossil fuel companies and has been a leader of a recent push to have the federal government buy oil from domestic producers to help alleviate a glut in crude markets.

Hybrid cars, lightbulbs

Burgess' views on reducing emissions may be best reflected by his driving a hybrid vehicle since 2004. He has owned two Toyota Prius model cars and now drives a Hyundai Ioniq.

"It's not just that I'm a tightwad," jokes Burgess, noting that he appreciated getting about 55 mpg when gas prices rose.

"If we can squeeze more miles out of a gallon of gas, that's a good thing on the air quality side," he said. "And that's why the hybrid initially appealed to me."

He's not sold on a big federal push to invest in building new electric vehicle charging stations that Democrats favor. He said the infrastructure should, instead, be built based on the demands of the marketplace.

Burgess holds energy summits in his district every summer, including one this year with Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette, to let consumers know how they can save money through efficiency and showcase new technologies, including electric and hybrid cars.

Burgess has been a leading critic of what he sees as federal efficiency mandates, including Obama-era Energy Department loans guarantees to companies like failed solar company Solyndra and energy savings performance contracts at the Pentagon.

For a decade, Burgess sought to attach amendments to annual spending bills blocking a federal rule that would have phased out the sale of incandescent lightbulbs by 2020 in favor of more energy-efficient models that he saw as too costly.

His provision never made it into law, but the Trump administration backed a rule in 2019 to allow incandescent bulbs to stay on the market.

"Maybe I was just ahead of my time," Burgess laughs.

'Difficult choice'

Former Energy and Commerce Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas) said that while Burgess may be best known as a "baby doctor," he has done his homework on energy issues and has looked out for energy production facilities inside and outside his district that covers part of the Barnett Shale.

"I'm saying nothing negative about Ms. Rodgers. She's a former chairwoman of the Republican conference and just a super person, a great woman. Burgess is more where the conference is," said Barton.

The former chairman emphasized that Burgess hails from a state where he can comfortably promote conservative energy policies, while McMorris Rodgers comes from a more liberal state where she would have to be more cautious.

Shimkus, who briefly flirted with scrapping his retirement plans and running for the top slot after Walden announced he was leaving, said he opted not to in part because of the workload, which he says requires a lot of travel and fundraising.

"I would encourage anyone who's seeking the chairmanship of the Energy and Commerce Committee to strap on the boots and start working," said Shimkus.

Walden, who is not endorsing a candidate to succeed him, said McMorris Rodgers and Burgess are both terrific legislators, adding, "I think the conference is going to have a very good but difficult choice to make."

Published here.