Hill Heat

E&E News reports that Harlan Watson, Bush’s Special Envoy to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at the U.S. Department of State, will join the minority staff of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. As the lead negotiator for the United States, Watson opposed U.S. involvement in emissions reductions. Watson will become a “distinguished professional staff member” for Rep. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, the ranking minority member of Rep. Ed Markey’s (D-MA) non-legislative committee.

In other staff moves: Sources tell Hill Heat that Andrew Wheeler, the Republican staff director for the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, is leaving Sen. James Inhofe’s (R-OK) employ.

Last weekend, Sen. Barbara Boxer led a delegation from the Environment and Public Works Committee to Greenland:

• Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.)
• Ben Cardin (D-Md.)
• Bill Nelson (D-Fl.)
• Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.)
• Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)
• Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.)
• Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.)
• Bob Corker (R-Tenn.)
• Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)

Inhofe sent staffer Mark Morano, a former writer for the rightwing Cybercast News Service. Richard Alley of Penn State University, the lead author on the United States Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was the scientific advisor on the trip. They met with Arkalo Abelsen, Greeland’s environmental minister.

• Barbara Boxer: Urge Your Senators to Support the Sanders/Boxer Global Warming Bill!