“House Republicans will soon hold new leadership elections, but one outcome is already clear: Energy industry-related donors claim a heavy investment in many of the GOP lawmakers vying for top posts,” Energy Wire reports.  

The House Republican Conference is expected to set a date soon “for new leadership elections in the wake of Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) surprise announcement Friday that he will resign from Congress at the end of October. That decision will trigger not only contests for the speaker’s gavel — which current Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is widely expected to take up — but intraparty battles for majority leader, Republican whip and Republican conference chairman.”  

Given that the pool of contenders includes two Energy and Commerce Committee members as well as McCarthy — who has described his district’s Kern County as the ‘the heart of oil production in California’ (
EnergyWire
, Jan. 24, 2014) — it comes as no surprise that the oil and gas industry has already invested heavily in much of the House GOP’s potential new leadership slate.”