Oil & Gas Darling Steve Scalise Nominated as Speaker

WASHINGTON, D.C. – After weeks of disarray, House Republicans narrowly nominated Representative Steve Scalise for Speaker. Here’s what we know: a Speaker Scalise would represent an increasingly extreme MAGA Republican party, aligned with Big Oil in its dangerous opposition to clean energy sources that lower costs and pollution. Scalise has taken a career total of $2,019,297 in campaign funding from oil and gas, which is the third highest career total of anyone serving in Congress right now.

This nomination further highlights the dysfunction in the Republican Party, as the GOP presidential primary front-runner Donald Trump threw his support behind Congressman Jim Jordan. 

“The GOP’s Speaker fiasco has only proved that Republicans are unfit to lead the nation; they won’t listen to their constituents and side with the MAGA minority and Big Oil’s bottom line,” said Climate Power senior advisor for oil and gas Alex Witt. “President Biden’s clean energy plan is lowering costs, lowering pollution to keep communities healthy, and has already created over 170,600 jobs across the country. House Republicans, potentially led by Speaker Scalise, will continue to try and roll back clean energy investments, and they’ll have to answer to voters for it in 2024.”

By nominating Scalise, the GOP underscored its commitment to propping up the oil and gas industry. In the year since Democrats and President Biden passed the Inflation Reduction Act, Republicans have voted 25 times to repeal the landmark climate and clean energy plan – we expect Speaker Scalise to continue this legacy.