Darrell Issa
John Bryson could no doubt learn a thing or two about hot-wiring muscle cars and how to turbo-charge a sound board from Congressman Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. When it comes to energy, however, that's the end of Issa's worthwhile advice. But, on Tuesday, in another example of GOP upsidedownism, there was Issa
saying that Bryson, President Obama's nominee for Commerce secretary, is "deeply out-of-touch with our current energy challenge."
This from the guy who opposes Environmental Protection Agency regulation of greenhouse gas emissions and vowed last year to add his investigation to the plethora on the subject of the so-called "Climategate" scandal. The actual scandal there was the attack on science and the appallingly twisted media coverage of that attack.
But this wasn't what Issa had in mind for the probe that he has since backed away from.
What spurred him to sneer at Bryson as a "green evangelist" is the fact that the guy has credentials that make him unfriendly to the drill, baby, drill approach espoused by Issa and so many others joined at the hip to the fossil-fuel energy sector.
Previously CEO of Edison International, chairman of the California State Water Resources Control Board, head of the California Public Utilities Commission, co-chair of the Electric Drive Transportation Association (an electric vehicles trade association and a member of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change, Bryson is now chairman of BrightSource Energy, a solar company, and was one of the co-founders of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a leading environmental organization.
In short: Anathema to our energy overlords.
On the Oversight committee, one of Issa's tasks was to keep an eye on the Mineral Management Service. But he failed to uncover MMS's scandalous and corrupt behavior, including sweetheart deals. All this was exposed by others, although Issa has tried to take credit. The blog Issa Watch points out that, a month before Issa took over as chairman of the Oversight committee last January, he sent a letter to some
...150 corporate lobbyists, conservative think tanks and industry groups asking them what his committee should investigate. While Issa resisted releasing those letters, CREW assembled a number of them, including the responses from the Independent Petroleum Association of America and the American Petroleum Institute.
Clearly he's a guy deeply in touch with our current energy challenges.