About Chairman Markey

Rep. Edward Markey was appointed by Speaker Pelosi to be Chairman of the new Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming at the beginning of the 110th Congress. Mr. Markey has long been active on energy and environmental issues, reflecting his commitment to maintaining the quality of life and economic opportunity in New England. The president of the League of Conservation Voters has said of the chairman: “there is no greater environmental champion in Congress than Ed Markey as we fight to head off the looming catastrophe of climate change.”

In addition to chairing the Select Committee, Rep. Markey is a senior member of both the Energy and Commerce Committee (where he chairs the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet) and the Resources Committee, and also serves on the Homeland Security Committee. From 1985-1987, Rep. Markey chaired the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Energy Conservation and Power Subcommittee, and from 1980-1984 he chaired the House Interior Committee’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. He has authored numerous energy reforms in his career on these committees overseeing the Department of Energy the Department of Interior, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as national energy policy and regulation generally. He also serves as an honorary Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the nonprofit Alliance to Save Energy.

• Rep. Markey was one of the principal authors of HR 6, one of the first bills to pass the 110th Congress, seeking to recover $14 billion in unnecessary tax incentives to the oil and gas industry and redirecting that funding to a new fund for incentives for energy efficiency, renewable and alternative fuels.
• He led the effort to pass the landmark 1987 National Appliance Energy Conservation Act which has eliminated the need for hundreds of large new electric power plants by setting minimum energy efficiency standards for major energy-consuming household appliances such as air-conditioners, refrigerators and washer-dryers. These huge efficiency gains have reduced energy demand dramatically, preserved thousands of acres of precious land and water, and prevented the emission of millions of tons of harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
• Rep. Markey is the author of HR 1506, the bipartisan Fuel Economy Reform Act, the lead bill to impose significantly higher fuel economy requirements on the manufacture of automobiles and SUVs in order to drastically reduce our dependence on foreign oil. He has led that effort over the last four Congresses. The passenger vehicle standards, initially adopted in 1975, have not been increased for more than 20 years, and the fleetwide average has fallen back as SUVs have replaced cars.
• Rep. Markey has led the fight in the House to prevent oil and gas drilling in the federally-protected Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. The ongoing oil and gas drilling activity on the North Slope already leads to greenhouse gas emissions that exceed the emissions of Washington DC.
• Rep. Markey has consistently led the fight, both in the Natural Resources Committee and on the House Floor, to block the expansion of oil and gas drilling off U.S. coastlines.
• Rep. Markey led the effort to prevent the Republican Resources Committee form passing a provision to override the fishing conservation plans adopted by managers of marine sanctuaries such as the Studds Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary off Massachusetts.
• During the House-Senate conference on the Energy Policy Act, Rep. Markey fought for adoption of climate change legislation and approval of a renewable portfolio standard.
• This same legislation prevented the Bush Administration from rolling back the air-conditioner standard set during the Clinton Administration.
• Rep. Markey attached an amendment to the 2007 Energy bill forcing the Energy Department to set a schedule for getting appliance efficiency standards setting rules back on track after years of delays, so that the nation can more rapidly achieve further energy savings and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• Ed Markey led the fight against efforts to block the implementation of efficiency standards for fluorescent lighting in the mid-1990s.
• He was the author of a provision in the Clean Air Act that ensured that energy efficiency measures were included in the cap-and-trade system adopted to reduce emissions that cause acid rain.
• Capping a 10-year effort to provide a cushion against spikes in energy prices in the Northeast, Ed Markey championed and won the battle for a Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve in 2000.
• Rep. Markey has also been a long-standing champion of stronger safety and environmental protections for our nation’s nuclear power plants, and has led opposition to efforts to override environmental protections with respect to the transportation and burial of high-level radioactive waste.
• Ed Markey issued a seminal report in 1985 entitled "Nuclear Guinea Pigs" which became the basis for a Pulitzer-Prize winning newspaper expose and apologies by our government for sponsoring radioactive experiments on human subjects without their knowledge or informed consent.
• Rep Markey authored a provision of the 1992 Energy Policy Act to force utilities to allow neighboring electricity generators access to power lines in order to sell electricity to wholesale customers, breaking down barriers to competition and allowing cleaner new power plants to get access to the electricity grid.
• A Markey investigation in 1982 revealed vast and illegal underpayments of royalties owed by large coal companies for mining on public lands. The ensuing furor ultimately led to the resignation of the Secretary of Interior, James Watt.
• Ed Markey forced the cleanup of the Woburn hazardous waste site (the infamous subject of the book and film “A Civil Action”), among many others, by working to pass the original Superfund law, and then defending this landmark environmental statute, for example, by resisting attacks on the “polluter pays” principle.