The former head of the House’s energy panel won’t seek another term in Congress, he announced this week.
Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) is retiring after a nearly 30-year stint representing Michigan’s sixth congressional district, he announced Tuesday during remarks on the House floor. “Thanks again to the people of my district who placed their faith and confidence in me all these years,” Upton said.
Upton was chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee from 2011 to 2017, and remains on the committee. The panel’s ranking member, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) said in a statement Tuesday that Upton’s time as chair “has left a lasting impact on the American people for the better.”
In September, Upton was part of a coalition of Michigan lawmakers that again sounded the alarm about a proposed Canadian spent nuclear fuel repository on the Great Lakes. The bipartisan group urged Secretary of State Antony Blinken to work with Ottawa and prevent the proposed site on the coast of Lake Huron from getting built.
Upton last summer also weighed in on the continued vacancies on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, telling chairman Christopher Hanson during a July hearing that he was “frustrated” that the Joe Biden administration had yet to nominate replacements for the two empty seats on the commission.
