Tag: Henry Waxman

Colorado U.S. Representative Diana DeGette on Thursday sent a letter to Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Cliff Stearns urging him to invite Brian Harrison, president and CEO of Solyndra, to testify before an investigative subcommittee of which she is a ranking member.

Freshman Republican Congressman Cory Gardner weathered a drawn out if ultimately not-close Tea Party caucus battle last year and rode the Republican wave to victory over Democrat Betsy Markey.* Less than a year later, he's again navigating the increasingly rocky electoral waters of Colorado's sprawling Fourth District.

Coming up with a definition of diesel fuel seems like a fairly straightforward task, but in the world of natural gas drilling and the process of hydraulic fracturing – or fracking – nothing ever comes easy. Senior Colorado Congresswoman Diana DeGette on Monday joined fellow Democrats Henry Waxman, Edward Markey and Rush Holt in asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to write a much broader definition of diesel fuel than the industry seems willing to accept.

Colorado Congresswoman Diana DeGette, D-Denver, today sent a letter to U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., requesting a full hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on the controversial topic of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Between 2005 and 2009, the nation’s 14 leading natural gas drilling service companies used hydraulic fracturing fluids containing 29 different chemicals regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) as potential human carcinogens, according to a new congressional report released Saturday. The investigation was spearheaded by a group of House Democrats that includes Colorado's Diana DeGette.

In his weekly newsletter Sunday, Republican Rep. Cory Gardner of Colorado’s 4th Congressional District lauded last week’s passage by the GOP-controlled House of the Energy Tax Prevention Act (H.R. 910) aimed at preventing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. The Democrat-controlled Senate promptly rejected the move.

Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette Wednesday will introduce an amendment calling for full disclosure of hydraulic fracturing fluids to a bill introduced earlier this month...

Consumers were shocked when insurance giant WellPoint hiked rates in Colorado this year on its Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield individual-market policies by more than 20 percent. More shocking, perhaps, is that those rates may be perfectly in line, given the way medical prices are rising, according to consumer advocates. State regulators say Coloradans won't learn whether the rates were fair or not, much less win relief, for months or longer.

As Washington again debated health reform last week, Coloradans enrolled in insurance giant WellPoint's Anthem individual group plan reeled from a 19.9 percent rate hike. Indianapolis-based WellPoint levied the double-digit increase here quietly in January, without a sound from Colorado lawmakers. A state insurance commissioner told the Independent he was unsurprised by the increase and "signed off" on it back in September.

Democratic leaders face a major decision now on health care reform-- yet another one this year that will throw into relief the interests that compete in American representative democracy. They have to choose between either closing the "doughnut hole" and offering full coverage for millions of low-income seniors on Medicare who need to buy prescription drugs or sticking to a deal they made with the nation's major drug companies. According to the deal, the government agrees not to use its bulk buying power to lower the cost of drugs, so long as the drug companies dole out $80 billion over the next decade to subsidize health reform.