Meet the GOP leaders in charge of critical House environmental committees
The US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Following the midterm elections in November, President Joe Biden faces a GOP-controlled House of Representatives largely opposed to the administration’s climate change and clean energy policies and efforts to curb the country’s dependence on fossil fuel production.
Although Republicans have a slim majority in the House, newly GOP-led committees have started to launch oversight of the administration’s climate agenda and have unveiled legislation aimed to maintain or increase fossil fuel production.
It’s unlikely that Republicans will advance major legislation to the president’s desk, but they will conduct oversight hearings on climate and energy legislation and attempt to redirect funding for climate programs under the historic Inflation Reduction Act.
Meet the three Republicans who are now leading key House environmental and climate committees:
Bruce Westerman, chair of House Committee on Natural Resources
Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., speaks during a news conference in the Capitol Visitor Center on the Save Our Sequoias Act, that aims to protect the trees from wildfires on Thursday, June 23, 2022.
Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
House Republicans selected Westerman to lead the committee that oversees the Interior Department and the Forest Service and plays a role in dictating policy on issues like mineral resources, wildlife conservation, mining and irrigation.
Westerman, a representative for Arkansas’s fourth congressional district, has a background in engineering and is a licensed forester. He’s argued the country should focus on advancing technology such as nuclear power and carbon sequestration to address climate change, rather than aggressively limiting the country’s fossil fuel production. He’s also introduced legislation to plant 1 trillion trees globally by 2050 in order to pull carbon out of the atmosphere.
As the Natural Resources Committee chair, Westerman said he would focus on conducting oversight of the Interior Department’s proposed five-year plan for new offshore oil and gas leases in federal waters. The proposal would block all new drilling in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans within U.S. waters but allow some lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and the south coast of Alaska.
“We’re going to be using a lot of oil and gas for the foreseeable future,” Westerman said in a phone interview with CNBC. “Under this administration, they have attacked U.S. production on federal land. That is bad policy, it’s not following the law, and we plan to have oversight.”
Westerman also said he’s open to working with West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat, on bipartisan permitting reforms for the country’s energy projects. Such legislation includes Westerman’s Building U.S. Infrastructure through Limited Delays and Efficient Reviews (BUILDER) Act, which aims to speed up the review process for energy projects under the National Environmental Policy Act.
“I’ve spoken to Manchin a couple of times — he is willing to work on common sense solutions,” Westerman said.
While the Natural Resources Committee is one of the most influential panels for environmental and climate policy, the GOP’s agenda will likely be limited by the Biden administration and the Democratic Senate.
Domestic critical mineral production could be an area where Democrats and Republicans might work together. Westerman has called for expanding mining to collect minerals necessary for electric vehicles and other clean energy sources, like lithium, copper, cobalt and nickel, arguing that doing so will boost U.S. energy security and limit the country’s dependence on Chinese supply chains.
But Westerman has also emphasized that the U.S. is focusing too much on EV production as a climate solution and has opposed curbing fossil fuel development, both of which are key components of the Biden administration’s climate agenda.
“We need a realistic approach to energy and the environment to address climate issues,” he said. “I want to focus on policies and programs that actually work.”
Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chair of House Committee on Energy and Commerce
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) during a House Energy and Commerce Environment and Climate Change Subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill on April 2, 2019 in Washington, DC.
Zach Gibson | Getty Images
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who represents the fifth district of Washington state, is leading the committee at the center of GOP plans to pass energy legislation and conduct oversight of the president’s climate agenda.
Rodgers, who opposed the president’s Inflation Reduction Act, has argued that Democrats are moving forward with the clean energy transition too quickly, making the country more reliant on China for technology like solar panels and EV batteries.
She’s introduced legislation that would limit the drawdown of petroleum in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve until the Energy Department develops a plan to increase the percentage of federal lands leased for oil and gas production.
As the Energy and Commerce Committee chair, Rodgers has supported oversight plans that involve investigating climate spending under the IRA as well as legislative plans focused on streamlining permitting to modernize energy infrastructure and promoting carbon capture, nuclear power, natural gas and hydropower.
For instance, Rogers has highlighted concerns over a Department of Energy loan program aimed to advance clean energy technology not yet funded by the private sector. The program will be expanded under the IRA.
“The Energy and Commerce Committee is at the center of solving the most important issues facing hardworking Americans – lowering costs, promoting free speech, and preserving free markets,” Rodgers said in a statement.
Earlier this month, the committee reviewed 17 energy bills, including those that would boost mining and oil and gas drilling, curb taxes on the fossil fuel industry and roll back climate provisions under the IRA.
The actions include repealing the Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a $27 billion dollar program designed to finance energy saving projects, as well as eliminating the IRA’s Methane Emission Reduction Program, which imposes a federal fee on methane emissions from the oil and gas sector.
It’s unlikely, however, that Republicans will have success changing or repealing climate programs under the IRA, since the president has the authority to veto congressional efforts to change climate spending provisions.
Frank Lucas, chair of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee
Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, is interviewed by CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images in his Rayburn Building office on Thursday, January 26, 2023.
Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
Rep. Frank Lucas, a fifth-generation Oklahoman who operates a farm and cattle ranch, is the new chair of the committee that has jurisdiction over key federal scientific research and development as well as authority over research activities at agencies like the Department of Energy, the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Weather Service and the EPA.
Lucas has said the committee would focus on issues including securing the supply chain for advanced technologies, renewing U.S. leadership in space and aeronautics and researching ways to make domestic energy cleaner.
“We’ll be focusing on promoting innovative technologies to facilitate our clean energy transition,” Lucas told CNBC. “Our goal is to make American energy cleaner, more affordable and more reliable. So every energy source and technology pathway is on the table in our effort to reduce emissions.”
Lucas has introduced legislation that would make the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — the agency that forecasts weather, monitors storms and researches climate change impacts — an independent agency rather than a part of the Commerce Department. The bill would require Democrats’ support to pass.
Lucas said the committee would also conduct “robust oversight” of the spending being distributed to advance the country’s clean energy sector.
“We’ll focus on helping fossil fuels become cleaner and more efficient now, investing in battery storage and other tools to make renewable sources like wind and solar energy more reliable and supporting advanced technologies for nuclear and hydrogen,” Lucas said.
The previous chair of the committee, the now-retired Lamar Smith, R-Texas, had repeatedly questioned the science of climate change and accused federal researchers of manipulating climate research.
In contrast, Lucas has acknowledged the threat of disasters like drought and heatwaves that are growing worse with climate change, but has resisted the idea of curbing fossil fuel production to address the problem.
Environment
It seems like Elon Musk stoking a civil war in England isn’t good for Tesla’s sales there
Tesla’s EV registrations in the UK, its biggest market in Europe, took a dramatic hit in October 2025 — just 511 units — marking one of the brand’s weakest showings in recent memory. That’s a steep drop from 971 in October 2024 and 2,677 in October 2023. The tone of the market is shifting.
Maybe Tesla’s CEO stoking a civil war in England isn’t helping the automaker’s demand in the important market.
Tesla’s sales have been struggling in Europe over the past two years, and the decline has been accelerating in 2025.
While some believed that things were stabilizing for the American automaker in Europe, the October data tells a different story. Tesla had its worst month of deliveries of the year in 12 of its 15 biggest European markets.
As Tesla sales in Germany crashed over the last year, partly because Tesla CEO Elon Musk supported the far-right AfD party, the UK became Tesla’s biggest market in Europe.
But now it looks like the UK is going in the same direction.
According to registration data, Tesla delivered only 511 vehicles in the UK in October 2025. Tesla has over 50 stores in the country – that’s an average of roughly 10 vehicles per location for the whole month.
It’s the worst monthly performance since October 2022.
Much as Tesla’s demand crashed in Germany, Elon Musk’s politics might be behind the lower demand in the UK.
The CEO regularly comments on UK politics and often shares inflammatory reports about crimes perpetrated by immigrants. He also shares misleading crime and immigration statistics aimed at spreading hatred.
After he tweeted that “Civil war is inevitable. Just a question of when.”, he was accused of stoking a civil war in the country.
Musk’s public commentary on UK topics has sparked backlash and resulted in his “unfavorability rating” reaching 80% in the country.
Electrek’s Take
Meanwhile, Tesla’s demand cliff is opening the door to competitors. BYD is now expected to outsell Tesla in the whole year of 2025 in the UK despite Tesla having a presence in the market for much longer.
Not many industry watchers thought it would happen this fast.
Tesla appears to be completely missing out on the surge of EV sales in Europe due to a mix of having a stagnant EV lineup, brand problems brought on by a controversial CEO, and increased competition.
In the US, Musk is believed to have cost Tesla about 1 million sales over the last 3 years.
I think it will soon be approaching this number in Europe.
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Rondo Energy and energy producer EDP are installing a massive 100 MWh renewable-powered heat battery at HEINEKEN’s brewery in Lisbon, Portugal. The project will deliver round-the-clock renewable steam and reduce emissions without altering the facility’s beer brewing process.
Brewing HEINEKEN with zero-carbon steam
The Rondo Heat Battery (RHB) will be the biggest deployed in the beverage industry worldwide. It can store electricity as high-temperature heat using refractory bricks, then convert that heat into 24/7 steam, all without burning fossil fuels.
At HEINEKEN’s Central de Cervejas e Bebidas Brewery and Malting Plant, the heat battery system will supply 7 MW of steam, powered by renewable electricity from onsite solar and the grid. That steam is identical to steam created by gas-fired boilers, but without the carbon pollution.
EDP is providing the renewable electricity and will deliver the steam directly to HEINEKEN via a Heat-as-a-Service model. Rondo is supplying the battery, and HEINEKEN gets to ditch fossil fuels without retooling its brewing process.
Why this matters
This project is a big win for industrial decarbonization. High-temperature steam is one of the most complex parts of manufacturing to electrify, and the beer industry runs on it. HEINEKEN’s Lisbon site already uses solar panels for electricity and electric heat pumps for hot water, and this move helps it go even further.
It’s part of HEINEKEN’s “Brew a Better World” plan to hit net zero emissions by 2040 and decarbonize all of its global production sites by 2030.
Additionally, the deployment aligns with Portugal’s national target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030.
The bigger picture
With the European Investment Bank and Breakthrough Energy Catalyst backing this and other Rondo projects with €75 million in funding, this Lisbon installation is just the beginning. Rondo’s technology enables energy-hungry industries to switch from fossil fuels to renewable electricity without compromising 24/7 operations.
Rondo CEO Eric Trusiewicz sums it up: “We are thrilled to be installing our first Rondo Heat Battery in Iberia, and to support HEINEKEN to reach its goals. We look forward to helping industries across Iberia cut costs and carbon, and help Iberia capitalize on the opportunity.”
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Lucid Group (LCID) reported third-quarter earnings after the market closed on Wednesday, missing top and bottom-line estimates.
With 4,078 vehicles delivered in Q3, Lucid marked its seventh straight quarter with higher deliveries. Through the first nine months of 2025, Lucid delivered nearly 10,500 vehicles, more than the roughly 10,200 it handed over in 2024.
Although supply chain issues hampered production in the first half of the year, Lucid’s CEO Marc Winterhoff said the company made “significant progress ramping production of the Lucid Gravity through Q3,” including adding a second manufacturing shift at its Casa Grande, Arizona, plant.
Lucid produced 3,891 vehicles in Q3, missing estimates of around 5,600. With 9,966 EVs produced through the third quarter, Lucid will need to build over 8,000 more to meet its full-year production goal of 18,000 to 20,000.
According to estimates, Lucid is expected to report an adjusted quarterly loss of $2.27 per share on revenue of $352 million in Q3 2025.
Lucid Group Q3 2025 earnings breakdown
Lucid missed top and bottom-line estimates as it continues to address industry-wide supply chain issues that are hampering production of the Gravity SUV.
Although it missed estimates, Lucid reported Q3 revenue of $336.6 million, which is still up 68% from $200 million in the same period last year.
Lucid’s net loss narrowed to $978.4 million in the third quarter, or $3.31 per share, from $992.5 million, or $4.09 per share, in Q3 2024. On an adjusted basis, Lucid posted a loss of $2.65 per share.
In addition, Lucid said it agreed with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) to increase the delayed draw term loan credit facility (DDTL) from $750 million to around $2 billion.
Given the increase, Lucid said total liquidity would have been around $5.5 billion at the end of Q3, up from the $4.2 billion it reported. Lucid ended the third quarter with $1.6 billion in cash and equivalents.
Lucid said liquidity is enough to fund it through the first half of 2027, up from the second half of 2026, as previously forecast. Lucid plans to launch production of its more affordable midsize platform in late 2026 with vehicles starting at around $50,000.
Lucid confirmed it was still on track to start production of the midsize platform later next year. However, given the supply chain issues, it now expects to hit the lower end of its production goal at around 18,000.
Winterhoff said the company “remains intensely focused on ramping up production and addressing the significant supply chain disruptions impacting the entire industry.”
Lucid is advancing other emerging tech, including autonomy and intelligent mobility. Through a new partnership with NVIDIA, Lucid aims to be among the first to offer Level 4 autonomous driving.
The third-quarter earnings miss comes after Rivian (RIVN) beat expectations this week, reporting higher revenue and improving gross margins.
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