An incoming Republican senator from coal country is taking heat for hiring a veteran Democrat as a top energy and environmental policy adviser. However, the senator, who will sit on two key committees handling those issues, says she is confident in the hire.
The staffer, Jan Brunner, has been a top aide to Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) since 2012, advising him on energy policy and serving as his legal counsel on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. She has also worked for Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D., Ill.).
Come January, Brunner will be a senior policy adviser for energy and environmental issues to freshman Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito.
As a Republican senator from coal-heavy West Virginia, Capito is expected to take a hard line against Obama administration policies that critics say are designed to shutter coal plants and steer the country away from fossil fuels generally.
Capito will sit on the Energy and Natural Resources (ENR) and Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committees, two panels with extensive influence on national energy policy and oversight of the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, and other relevant federal regulators.
According to an email from Brunner obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, she will be Capito’s "energy and environment senior policy advisor for both ENR and EPW."
Capito’s role in crafting the Senate GOP’s policy stances on energy and environmental issues has some Republicans concerned that a Democrat will be advising her on those issues.
Capito took a hard line against the EPA during her 2014 campaign, calling agency policies designed to limit carbon emissions from power plants "an assault" on the coal industry that "will cost American jobs, increase energy prices, and threaten our national security."
Capito spokeswoman Amy Graham said in an emailed statement that Brunner shares those sentiments and will work to rein in the agency and back other pro-energy policies.
"Jan—a native of Bluefield, West Virginia, and an expert on issues surrounding coal and natural gas—will be a strong asset in pushing policies that will grow West Virginia's economy and fight back against the EPA's devastating policies that are crushing jobs and threatening the livelihoods of West Virginia families," Graham said.
However, some industry supporters were troubled by the hire.
"It is very bad mojo," said Mike McKenna, an industry lobbyist and former Energy Department official. McKenna runs MWR Strategies, which represents electric utilities such as Competitive Power Ventures and PSEG that rely heavily on coal and natural gas.
"It suggests that some Republicans are not really prepared to be in the majority, and that at least some are not very serious about these issues," McKenna said. "And that there is limited appetite—at least in some quarters—to lock up on them and push back on the administration on climate change and ozone."
Brunner may have more industry-friendly views than McKenna gives her credit for. She forwarded questions to Capito’s staff, but her social media postings reveal support for the Keystone Pipeline, which Manchin, her former employer, also backed.
After the Senate failed by a single vote to advance a measure to approve the pipeline last month, Brunner changed her Facebook profile photo to a map of the pipeline’s route.
In comments below the photo, Brunner criticized the Obama administration’s repeated delays in approving the project. She echoed comments from congressional Republicans who say the president is using an ongoing Nebraska Supreme Court case over the pipeline’s route as an excuse to further delay a decision.
"This White House is soooo wussy," Brunner quipped. "Just say no already."