Sensenbrenner: Keep climate panel alive so I can investigate EPA

One of the top climate skeptics in the House is asking GOP leadership to keep the Democrats’ global warming committee alive to investigate the Obama administration’s environmental policies.

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), ranking member of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, is making good on his promise to pitch Republicans to revamp the committee to focus on the costs of Environmental Protection Agency regulations.

“The threat of the EPA’s reach into the economy is so great that it deserves special attention this Congress, and no panel has developed more experience on these topics than the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming,” Sensenbrenner said in a statement. “These regulations are moving quickly, but the oversight and subpoena power wielded by the Select Committee would put a tall hurdle in the path and would further expose the economic destruction these policies would bring.”

It’s been widely speculated that Republican leadership would ditch the panel, which was launched by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to bring attention to global warming.

Sensenbrenner hopes to discuss prospects for the committee overhaul with leadership when lawmakers return next week, said his spokesman Terry Lane.