By Catherine Traywick
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Just inside Texas Republican Joe Bartons Rayburn office is a mini-fridge filled with Dr. Pepper: original diet caffeine free. Its a daily reminder of where he comes from: Waco Texas. His home town is the birthplace of the beverage that he always seems to have in hand.
Bartons allegiance to products of the Lone Star State extends to his work on the House Energy and Commerce Committee where hes been an advocate of the oil and gas industry for nearly three decades. That culminated in a repeal of the crude-oil export ban last December. Fresh from that win the panels chairman emeritus" is now positioning himself to once again lead the committee hes served on since 1987.
An engineer whose district extends across a swath of reliably Republican suburbs south of Dallas Barton wants more drilling on public lands and pushed hard for the Keystone pipeline. He sparked an uproar (and a rebuke from GOP leadership) for apologizing to a BP executive for the shakedown" the company got from President Barack Obama after the Gulf oil spill.
Barton whose gentle lilting speaking style belies a steely demeanor sat down with Bloomberg Government to chat about why he wants to return as chairman of the Energy and Commerce committee how he was treated by GOP leaders last time he ran for chairman and which jersey he plans to wear at this years congressional baseball game.
I understand you want to be chairman again.
Its legally possible. Id say Im a little bit of a long-shot a dark horse.
Why do you say that?
Well youve got three or four people that have never been a committee chairman
John Shimkus and
Greg Walden would probably be the top two. And Congresswoman (Marsha) Blackburn of Tennessee.
Based on the ability to get things done Id be the leading contender. If you want to have an activist committee in the next Congress I would be a committee chairman that could make things happen. But I certainly understand there are other people who are qualified and Im not being negative on them at all. So well just see. It depends on the make-up of the steering committee and what the issues are.
Shimkus seems pretty serious about pursuing this.
He and I are good friends. Im not opposed to Mr. Shimkus being chairman. He and Greg and Marsha waited their turn and I understand that but I was not treated fairly and I think they understand that.
You were treated unfairly in the 2010 race?
Well former Speaker Boehner came up with an interpretation that said time served in the minority counts as time served in the majority and I had been ranking member for two terms. He said thats the same as if youd been chairman. Thats absurd. The chairman sets the agenda for the committee the ranking member of the minority reacts. The minority seldom ever wins a vote or anything. The deck is stacked against the minority.
There needs to be an acknowledgment of that. I think the conference would acknowledge that. God help us if what former Speaker Boehner if his interpretation is correct why would anyone in their right mind ever be the ranking member? Why would you forgo a chance to be chairman by being ranking member? Itd be stupid to. And it was not enunciated that way at the time the rules were put in place or while we were in the minority. It was an after-the-fact interpretation.
But look Im a big boy I understand. There are not that many major committee chairmanships and the good news is we have a lot of qualified people who would do a good job. I just think the fact that I was chairman for one term shows what I can do and my ability to put together coalitions.
If you do get the gavel what would you do with it?
We need to replace Obamacare thats probably the single biggest issue. I think I could put together a bipartisan coalition to do that. I think FDA NIH reform as a part of Obamacare reform would be things that could be helpful and those are things Ive done before. In telecommunications I think President Obama has not served the telecommunications industry well. His net-neutrality rules and some of the restrictions theyve put on the Internet I dont think are helpful.
And your energy priorities?
To try to bring fairness into the environmental laws. I dont want to gut the Clean Air Act or the Clean Water Act but at the same time I think you can have effective environmental protection and still have natural-resource development and commonsense air regulations and things like that. The presidents Clean Power Plan is terrible. These latest ozone proposals are unnecessary in my opinion. I dont think theyre science based. So just kind of reform the environmental laws so you have real protection but you have more of a balance between economic growth and environmental protection.
Would you take any action on the RFS?
I think wed have to try. You can make an argument to repeal it and you can certainly make an argument to reform it. Its not enforceable in its current configuration. The mandates the volumetric mandates are too high. So at a minimum you ought to ratchet down the formula. You could repeal it and youd still have a huge ethanol volume in this country.
The reasons for which the RFS was initially established are no longer there. But whether its worth the political fight to try to repeal it that would be a policy decision that the Speaker and the Majority Leader of the Senate would have to make. So I could either go to reform it or repeal it.
Was the crude-export ban repeal your biggest legislative win?
Its certainly the biggest in the last three to four years but Ive done the NIH reform bill the big energy bill in 2005. Ive been very lucky to have been in a position to do some things that have helped energy policy in this country.
How do you see the energy landscape changing now?
Well weve been very fortunate in this country and Ill take some credit for it but its not just me but weve maintained basically a free-market energy policy and as a consequence of that we are a leader in world energy and are going to be a world leader in energy for the foreseeable future. Oil natural gas coal wind solar you name it. Ethanol. We are the world leader and well stay the world leader.
What would readers be surprised to learn about you?
I guess how sentimental maybe I am.
Youre managing the GOP baseball team again this year.
Weve got a very competitive team this year and I think we have a good chance to win.
Which jersey will you wear?
Well I have worn Texas A&M Houston Astros but mostly I wear Texas Rangers since theyre in my district. I have a white jersey a red jersey and a blue Rangers jersey. So its whichever one I can fit in. I think the blue one is the fattest one.
Ive noticed you enjoy drinking diet Dr. Pepper.
(Laughs) I do. The one I drink the most although Im trying to cut back is caffeine-free diet Dr. Pepper. I like Dr. Pepper Ten. I like the old classic Dr. Pepper with real sugar though thats one of the few we dont give away. Diet Dr. Pepper to me just tastes better than Diet Coke. But yeah were a Dr. Pepper office.
How did your love affair with Dr. Pepper begin?
Well I grew up in Waco Texas and thats the home of Dr. Pepper. I guess as a kid a lot of times we couldnt afford carbonated beverages. We drank a lot of Kool-Aid and lemonade. When we could buy the real deal it was always Dr. Pepper. Or Big Red. There was a faction of Big Red in Waco.
Never heard of it.
Its not really strawberry…Kind of a cream soda. Its red they call it Big Red. Its good!
To contact the reporter on this story:
Catherine Traywick in Washington at
ctraywick@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Nicholas Johnston at
njohnston3@bloomberg.net
Mark Drajem
