HAMBURG, N.Y. — Just as he spoke on Wednesday to opponents of Lake Erie wind turbines about his new bill to cut off financial aid to such future ventures, U.S. Rep. Nick Langworthy has priorities with his new committee assignments in the Republican-led House.
Obviously he is touting his seat on the House Agriculture Committee with his more rural southern Erie County and Southern Tier district.
But also he will be a member of the House Oversight committee, with its investigative powers and ability to hold hearings on various topics of interest.
"We're going to talk about the Southern border, we're going to talk a lot about some of the connections to the Biden family but also our energy crisis," Langworthy said.
Of course, the House Select Committee hearings on the Jan. 6 Capitol events set up by then majority Democrats in the previous term was criticized by many House GOP members as political theater.
So 2 On Your Side asked Langworthy if Republicans could also face similar criticism if they push forward with highly publicized hearings which some might deem to be partisan in nature.
"I think there are some issues that have happened in the first two years of this administration that people ask me about every single day," Langworthy said. "The withdrawal from Afghanistan and the lead up to that. I think we deserve answers. The energy crisis that we faced here as Americans. We deserve answers. I believe there's a lot of answers that Joe Biden has to provide about his son's business deals."
Langworthy also brought up the recent questions about classified government documents found in the private Delaware home of President Biden, which dated back to his term as vice president in the Obama Administration.
And there is Republican member George Santos from Long Island, who is accused of fabricating his resume. Langworthy has called for Santos to resign but acknowledges Santos probably won't leave with all his efforts to get legal representation. Questions have swirled about what some GOP leaders knew about Santos and his background.
We asked: "Do you fear that there were other people embedded in the Republican party who were pushing for him or his campaign while maybe they knew there were things that were not correct?"
Langworthy responded: "I also am the state Republican Party chairman still. No one knew ... the kind of lies and deceit that Santos put forward."
On that point of concerns that Langworthy may be stretched too thin as a member of Congress and as the state GOP party chairman, he says state Republican officials will meet in Albany in early to mid February to select a new chairman.
Now Langworthy was specifically in Hamburg to speak about those controversial Lake Erie wind turbines. The release of a new state study which said more information is required before Albany can agree to the plans for new wind turbines in Lake Erie was welcomed by staunch opponents of such an idea here in Western New York. They are hoping that an ally in Washington can also stall future efforts on this idea.
So Langworthy announced that his first introduced piece of legislation in Congress is actually fulfilling his campaign promise to this group who say there are various environmental dangers posed by the proposal to place such wind powered turbine power generators in the lake waters.
The Republican lawmaker says his bill will remove financial incentives for such projects if it's approved.
"None of these wind projects are feasible without massive federal subsidies and tax credits, and that's the purpose of this legislation, is to take it's legs out from under it so they can't move forward," Langworthy said.
Dave Adrian spoke on behalf of Citizens Against Wind Turbines in Lake Erie.
"CAWTILE will continue to advocate against Lake Erie wind because of the irreversible negative impacts it would have on the environment, drinkiong water, fishing habitat, recreational usage, viewshed, and property values for future generations," he said.
This comes as the state of Ohio's Supreme Court approved last August a pilot project for wind turbines in Lake Erie called Project Icebreaker with any produced power going to the city of Cleveland. That occurred despite the concerns of other environmental groups in Ohio.
While Langworthy's bill was submitted, it is not clear if it will pass the House or Democratic Majority Senate or be possibly vetoed by President Biden, who is known to favor wind energy.