Barring any miracles tonight, Kevin McCarthy is still struggling to flip enough of his hard-line critics to clinch his bid to be House speaker. And that raises a question that has bedeviled Washington for days: If not McCarthy, then who? The outcome has implications for the House’s debates on energy and climate policy, as POLITICO’s E&E News reports, with conversations around the Capitol focusing on options such as Republican House members Steve Scalise, Elise Stefanik, Brian Fitzpatrick and even ex-Rep. Fred Upton. Republicans are mostly aligned on energy and climate policies, of course — including their support for fossil fuel production, calls for cutting regulations and opposition to President Joe Biden’s new climate law. Their strategy under McCarthy was expected to include aggressive oversight of Biden’s clean energy spending and a focus on voters’ frustrations with high gasoline prices. But if someone besides McCarthy becomes speaker, the choice could at least affect the tone that House leadership brings to these issues. Who could these candidates be? Let’s take a closer look: The establishment: Scalise, the incoming majority leader and No. 2 House Republican, is one obvious choice. The Louisiana congressman and Energy and Commerce Committee veteran has long been a fierce oil and gas advocate — but also has drawn attention for casting doubt on the reality of human-caused climate change. In 2019, for instance, he said the Earth “gets warmer and gets colder, and that’s called Mother Nature.” Another option from leadership is Stefanik, the House Republican Conference chair. The GOP lawmaker from New York has bucked her party and taken votes to rejoin the Paris accord, limit methane pollution, and block drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and eastern Gulf of Mexico — while also embracing former President Donald Trump. A unity choice: The anti-McCarthy bloc has made clear it’s not interested in leadership candidates. That leaves possible compromise choices such as Patrick McHenry, who has served in Congress for nearly 20 years. The North Carolina lawmaker has said climate change is a serious issue best addressed with nuclear power. He helped lead the GOP effort against the Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed climate disclosure rules. Coalition government? An overt coalition between McCarthy supporters and Democrats is probably a long shot, even if Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has been floating the idea. Still, Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) has come up as a moderate who could garner Democratic support. Fitzpatrick has introduced a carbon tax proposal for the past three Congresses, even as his GOP colleagues have lined up in opposition to the idea. What about a non-House member? Yes, some people have even floated Trump’s name, noting that you don’t have to be a sitting member of Congress to be elected speaker. But Upton, a Michigan Republican who retired last year, also keeps coming up in conversations about this option. Having served as Energy and Commerce chair from 2011 to 2017, Upton would bring an unprecedented level of energy expertise to the speaker’s post. The downside: Upton has already shot down the idea, calling it an “intriguing proposal that I have rejected.”
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