Transitions in Washington and a Preview of 2011

While the overall change in the balance of power on Capitol Hill is getting much of the attention heading into 2011, understanding the individual key players and what they will choose to focus on is particularly critical to predicting how things will actually play out next year. People like Fred Upton, Darrell Issa, Doc Hastings, Lisa Murkowski, and Jeff Bingaman have been thrust into positions of enormous influence and will shape to a significant degree what the energy policy landscape will look like in the coming year. Not as well understood are the changes within the Obama Administration, both in the White House and throughout the executive branch. The Administration will be facing an uncertain economic recovery, while trying to implement wide-ranging regulations for carbon emissions and energy production, efforts that will add to its already strained workload. In this Brief, Garten Rothkopf will look at what to expect from both Congress and the executive branch in 2011, as well as what impacts they will have on key areas of energy policy.

Reshuffling in the West Wing

Even before being dealt a stinging blow in the midterm elections, the Obama Administration had been seeing high-profile members announce their departure, leading to important shifts in top-level staff. White House Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, and Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Christina Romer, each of them major architects of the Administration's policy and legislative agenda for the first two years, have all moved on. 

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