The winner will be at the helm of a panel that will spearhead a bill to cap greenhouse gases and establish a multibillion-dollar market in carbon dioxide, with companies buying and selling the right to pollute.
Last month Dingell and Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., unveiled a draft global warming bill based on dozens of hearings and white papers for reducing greenhouse gases by 80 percent by 2050
- a reduction in line with what Obama has proposed.
Environmentalists and some liberal Democrats, however, see Dingell as an obstacle to stricter fuel economy standards for cars and trucks and cleaner fuels also advocated by Obama.
They see in Waxman, whose district includes Beverly Hills, an opportunity to push through a more ambitious environmental agenda now that Democrats have expanded their majorities in Congress and will take over the White House.
"We have lost a tremendous amount of time. Rep. Dingell has always opposed bringing the energy and transportation sectors into a more efficient and modern era," said a senior Democratic aide for a member who supports Waxman's bid. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because the sensitivity of challenging Dingell, at 82 the longest serving member in the House and one of its biggest power brokers for a quarter century.
But Dingell's supporters say his global warming draft legislation has a better chance of winning support from some Republicans and conservative Democrats, many of them on his 57-member committee, because it slowly reduces emissions to buy time for the technology to develop.
Liberals and environmentalists complain that Dingell's bill could pre-empt states such as California that have set up their own carbon trading systems and forbid the Environmental Protection Agency and state agencies from setting fuel economy standards different from those adopted by the Transportation Department.
"The prospects for success will be much better under Chairman Dingell on this issue and many others," said Boucher, who chairs the energy panel's air quality subcommittee.
Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., who was working the phones to drum up support for Dingell, said that claims by Waxman supporters that Dingell would not move climate legislation quickly were "not based in reality."
"This climate change bill is not a slam dunk," said Doyle. "It is not like we have overwhelming votes in the House and Senate."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., have thus far not taken sides. Obama's camp is also staying out of it.
But it wouldn't be the first time Dingell has sparred with Pelosi or Waxman, a close ally of the speaker.
