Since Republicans won control of the U.S. House of Representatives last Tuesday — and in the weeks leading up to Election Day — political posturing and veiled threats have put the future of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming in doubt. But according to the likely incoming chair of the Select Committee, Rep. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin (R), not all Republicans want to do away with the committee.

Sensenbrenner, who himself doubts the role human activity plays in global warming, said Monday that he wants to keep the advisory committee alive to investigate President Obama's environmental policies.

“The threat of the EPA’s reach into the economy is so great that it deserves special attention this Congress, and no panel has developed more experience on these topics than the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming,” Sensenbrenner said in a statement.

“These regulations are moving quickly, but the oversight and subpoena power wielded by the Select Committee would put a tall hurdle in the path and would further expose the economic destruction these policies would bring,” he said.

Sensenbrenner is not the only Republican one who wants to use a newfound committee leadership to investigate the Obama administration's action on the environment.

California Rep. Darrell Issa has vowed to make another investigation of "climategate" his top priority if he becomes head of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee in the Fall.