say whether it's doable," he said in an interview slated to air Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press.

What they're saying: "This committee will be critical to the entire Congress’s mission to respond to the urgency of this threat, while creating the good-paying, green jobs of the future," Pelosi said in a statement.

The League of Conservation Voters, a political advocacy group with close ties to the Democratic establishment, praised the selection of Castor, a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee who has a 93% lifetime score in the group's rankings.

An earlier iteration of the committee in place when Democrats last controlled the House from 2007 to 2011 was called the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

Go deeper:Thursday, August 18

Jumping flea watch

Thecavaquinho(aka braguinha) is the older Portuguese cousin to the ukulele. Portuguese immigrants to Hawaiʻi brought the cavaquinho with them in the 1880s. Once on the islands, the little lute was refined enough that it became a whole new instrument -- the ukulele ("jumping flea" in Hawaiian).