Alan Lowenthal : Congressman Lowenthal Renamed as Ranking Member of Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee

Congressman Alan Lowenthal on January 24 was renamed ranking minority member of the House Natural Resources Committee's Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources (EMR), which oversees American energy production and mining on federal lands - both onshore and offshore. This will be Congressman Lowenthal's second Congressional term as ranking member on EMR.

'I am grateful to continue as Ranking Member of the EMR Subcommittee,' Congressman Lowenthal said. 'I expect that in the next two years, we will be confronted with many attempts by the Majority and the new Administration to increase fossil fuel production on public lands, abolish key health and safety protections, and deny the basic physics of climate change. As Ranking Member of EMR, I will stand firmly against this misguided agenda and demonstrate an alternative path toward cleaner energy production that also protects the environment and American families.'

The EMR subcommittee is one of five subcommittees within the House Natural Resources Committee (HNRC), which is headed on the minority side by Congressman Raul Grijalva (AZ-03).

'I am thrilled to have Congressman Lowenthal back at the helm for Democrats on the EMR Subcommittee,' HNRC Ranking Member Grijalva said. 'With Republicans planning an all-out assault on our public lands for the benefit of their buddies in the oil and gas industry, we need progressive champions for clean air, clean water, and clean energy like Alan Lowenthal to lead the opposition to their anti-environmental agenda.'

As a member of the Natural Resources committee for the past four years, Congressman Lowenthal has led many efforts on important issues under the EMR subcommittee's jurisdiction. He has developed legislation, offered amendments, and organized Member letters to: ensure taxpayers receive a fair return from the extraction of the public's oil and gas resources; protect the health and safety of communities affected by the shale gas boom and coal mining; find innovative ways to track hydraulic fracturing fluids through the subsurface; provide communities and safety officers full disclosure of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing operations; support the funding of the USGS's earthquake Early Warning System; maintain bedrock environmental laws; protect the nation's waterways from mining waste; increase public transparency around greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel development; develop a foundation to support the ongoing work of the Bureau of Land Management; and encourage the development of renewable energy on our public lands.

In addition to sitting on the full HNRC and the EMR subcommittee, Congressman Lowenthal also sits on the HNRC Subcommittee on Federal Lands which is responsible for all matters related to the National Park System, National Forests, the National Wilderness System, public lands, and national monuments.