Ed Whitfield

Wayne Edward Whitfield (born May 25, 1943) is an American politician and attorney who served as the U.S. representative of KY's 1st congressional district from January 1995, until his resignation in September 2016.

He is a member of the Republican Party, and the first to represent the district.

His district covered much of the western part of the state, including Hopkinsville, Paducah, Henderson and Kentucky's share of Fort Campbell.

Whitfield was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky; his family later moved to Madisonville, Kentucky, where he graduated from Madisonville High School.

He attended the University of Kentucky for both undergraduate and law school, where he was a member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity.

He also attended the Wesley Theological Seminary.

He served in the United States Army Reserve and reached the rank of First Lieutenant.

He served as legal counsel to executives at Seaboard System Railroad of Washington.

As a student at the University of Kentucky, Whitfield was elected President of the University Young Democrat's Club and in 1962 became involved in Edward T. Breathitt's successful campaign for Governor of Kentucky.

As a student, Whitfield worked in the State Treasurer's office and after graduating from U.K. Law School he was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1973.

He represented Hopkinsville and parts of Trigg County and was a member of the Democratic Party.

After serving one term he decided not to seek re-election in 1975 or challenge freshman U.S. Rep. Carroll Hubbard in the 1976 primary.

He focused on his family's oil distributorship until he went to work with Seaboard System Railroad as Legal Counsel in 1979.

Whitfield was a member of the moderate Republican Main Street Partnership.

On his official website, he represented himself as a conservative who has consistently voted anti-abortion and "supports allowing students to engage in voluntary school prayer."

He also lists military issues and encouraging the continued use of coal and nuclear as an anchor for baseload power to insure the use of an abundant, affordable and reliable source of electricity in the United States.

He served as a Vice President for the later CSX Corporation in two different capacities and was the Legal Counsel to the Chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission from 1991 to 1993.

this was a time when the Commission was deregulating the railroad and trucking industries.

He was elected to the United States Congress in November 1994 and began his term in January, 1995, as a member of the 104th Congress.

During his 21 plus years in the congress, Whitfield served on the Energy and Commerce Committee and served as Chairman of the Oversight and Investigation, Energy and Power Subcommittees.

Whitfield first became interested in politics as a high school student and attended his first political event at a rally for former United States Senator Dee Huddleston.

The Sunlight Foundation reported in 2008 that among the 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Whitfield had the seventh-highest amount of investment in oil stocks.

Whitfield was co-founder of the United States Turkish Caucus in the United States Congress.

He was one of three Republicans who voted for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009.

When chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations within the Committee on Energy and Commerce, Whitfield held hearings on child pornography and during his tenure as Chairman of Energy and Power has chaired over 40 hearings on energy issues.

He has focused significant time and resources to inform the American people about President Obama's Clean Power Plan which was initiated by regulation through the EPA.

President Obama and EPA did not consult or make any effort to work with Congress before issuing the Clean Power Plan to dictate the way electricity would be generated in the future.

Chairman Whitfield referred to the Clean Power Plan as "extreme" and an "unprecedented power grab".

At one of his hearings, Professor Lawrence Tribe, who teaches constitutional law at Harvard University, said the Clean Power Plan if implemented would be like tearing up the Constitution of the United States.

The Supreme Court, in considering a petition filed by 27 states opposed to the Clean Power Plan, issued an injunction to stop implementation of the plan.

The DC Circuit Court of Appeals is currently preparing to hear oral arguments on the Clean Power Plan.

Recognizing the important role Turkey plays as the only Muslim Nation in NATO and having had many conversations with commanding generals of the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Whitfield thought it was important to form a Congressional entity to provide support for Turkey in its role as a NATO Member.

Whitfield introduced the Electricity Security and Affordability Act (H.R. 3826; 113th Congress) into the House on January 9, 2014.

The bill would repeal a pending rule published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on January 8, 2014.

The proposed rule would establish uniform national limits on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from new electricity-generating facilities that use coal or natural gas.

The rule also sets new standards of performance for those power plants, including the requirement to install carbon capture and sequestration technology.

Whitfield said that, if finalized, the EPA's rule would "make it impossible to build a new coal-powered plant in American... That is hard to believe that that will can be the situation in our great country, particularly since 40 percent of our electricity comes from coal."

Whitfield argued that the legislation was needed because the EPA refused to respond to criticism or complaints about their proposed rule.

He also introduced and managed the floor debate on two Congressional Review Acts that had passed the United States Senate to stop the Clean Energy Plan Regulations adopted by EPA.

He was successful in passing both measures on the House floor.