Cliff Stearns: “recently the Speaker has indicated that she intends to appoint a special task force, a select committee, to investigate…”

“recently the Speaker has indicated that she intends to appoint a special task force, a select committee, to investigate global warming. The committee I serve on, Energy and Commerce, has jurisdiction on this matter and, in fact, we have had a hearing on this subject on July 27, 2006 in our oversight subcommittee. We investigated the so-called hockey stick effect. The hearing showed that there is a lot of information on global warming and that this is a very serious issue. But I question the need for another committee when the Energy and Commerce has full legislative power to continue to investigate and legislate. The committee the Speaker has designated will duplicate what is already in place with the longstanding expertise on the Energy and Commerce. In fact, as the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee recently said, "We are just empowering a bunch of enthusiastic amateurs to go around and make speeches and make commitments that will be very difficult to honor."”