Joe Barton (left) and Fred Upton may be reconciling after a divisive chairmanship dispute. | AP Photos Barton, Upton find common ground

Reps. Fred Upton of Michigan and Joe Barton of Texas have found some common ground amid their heated fight for the Energy and Commerce Committee gavel.

As they await the GOP steering committee’s pick for chairman, the two Republicans joined forces Friday to blast the Obama administration’s plans to regulate hydraulic fracturing — a controversial technique used to extract natural gas from the earth.


“We fear a rush to regulate by DOI and the administration will chill domestic oil and gas development and would negatively impact our efforts to increase energy security and to provide for a reliable and affordable energy supply,” Barton and Upton wrote in a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

The effort may be an attempt to signal publicly that fences have been mended after a divisive chairmanship dispute. Upton told POLITICO last month that he’d always had a good relationship with Barton, but it “isn’t the same as it was” before the contest.

Upton is expected to win the steering committee’s endorsement next week, but Barton maintains that he’ll get the post. “I’m gonna win the steering committee if it’s humanly possible,” he said Thursday.

Barton was reportedly behind a document questioning Upton’s conservative credentials that surfaced last month, though he has denied he had anything to do with it. “I’ve had nothing to do with any negative efforts against anybody. That is not something that I condone. I’ve run a positive campaign for myself or for whatever the cause that I believe in,” he told reporters yesterday.

Barton extended an olive branch Thursday, telling reporters that if he gets the gavel, he would offer Upton a subcommittee chairmanship. Upton declined to say earlier this week whether he’d consider Barton for a subcommittee post.

An Energy and Commerce Committee spokeswoman cautioned against reading too much into the lawmakers’ letter. "This is how our committee works. We have questions, and the responsible people on the committee get together and ask them."

Upton spokesman Sean Bonyun said the lawmakers will continue to work together to combat the administration. “Fred has been Mr. Barton's loyal top lieutenant, standing shoulder to shoulder together in the trenches fighting the job-killing cap and tax and Obamacare, and Mr. Barton will continue to be a close partner as the new majority fights back against the Obama administration's all-lout assault on jobs and the economy,” Bonyun said.

Bonyun added that the letter was initiated at the staff level.

Darren Goode contributed to this report.