"If you start going down that road, then nobody can contribute to you," Pallone told WNYC's "The Brian Lehrer Show" in an interview. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo Pallone: Ban of fossil fuel donations 'wrong way to go'

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) on Tuesday rejected the call for Democratic energy committee members to shun contributions from fossil fuel companies and other industries as too extreme.

"If you start going down that road, then nobody can contribute to you," Pallone told WNYC's "The Brian Lehrer Show" in an interview. “Ultimately you have to finance your campaign, and if you start saying that just because you’re on a committee, that nobody associated with any of the issues that the committee faces can contribute, I just think that’s the wrong way to go and too limiting.”


He added: "Where do you draw the line? Does that mean that somebody who works for the utility can’t contribute to me?"

The comments are sure to draw the ire of progressive groups and others like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who have pushed Pallone and other House Democrats to reject contributions from fossil fuel companies as they formulate their strategy to combat climate change.

Pallone also promised his committee would examine the Green New Deal, but cast doubt on whether a core component of it — decarbonizing the U.S. within 10 years — is achievable.

"Some of the countries that have been a lot more progressive on this, like in Western Europe for example, they’re moving towards carbon free or carbon neutral but it’s going to take more than ten years," he said. "This is something that we should take a look at, but some of it may not be technologically or politically feasible.”

Pallone said his panel expected to hold its first hearing, which will address climate change, by the end of the month and he vowed to conduct aggressive oversight of the Trump administration’s actions on the issue.

“The main thing that we’re going to be doing some oversight on is how the Trump administration is systemically trying to sabotage or eliminate any efforts at the federal level to deal with climate change,” Pallone said.

He voiced optimism that an infrastructure package would help to advance policies combating climate change even as Senate Republicans and the White House continue to avoid the issue.

“I don’t want to just lay a groundwork for something that might happen in five or ten years and just talk about it. I want to actually get things done,” Pallone said. “So we kind of have to convince them to take some action on climate even though they may deny it.”