Texas' Sen.-elect Ted Cruz (R), a fervent supporter of energy development, will be sworn in today, and it's fair to say his actions will be closely watched by both energy sector champions and environmentalists.

Heralded as a rising star in the Republican Party, Cruz burst on the scene last year with the backing of the tea party, laden with impressive credentials -- degrees from Princeton and Harvard Law School -- and experience as a domestic policy adviser during the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign, as a lawyer leading U.S. Supreme Court cases, and as associate deputy attorney general at the Department of Justice. Before throwing his hat in the ring for the Senate race, he was the solicitor general of Texas from 2003 to 2008.

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Cruz's political ascension was especially noteworthy because he prevailed in the Republican primary over the wishes of the Texas GOP establishment, which is plenty conservative -- but seen as insufficiently so by many tea party activists.

However, given the unstable political situation facing the gridlocked Congress, including a GOP on the defensive after a lost presidential election, fights over the budget, tax policy, spending and cuts, "it's unlikely that a freshman senator like Ted Cruz, talented as he is, will be a pivotal player in altering the discussion" on energy, said Bruce Buchanan, a University of Texas, Austin, professor of government who specializes in presidential politics. With a Democratic Senate majority, "nothing in a policy sense is going to happen in the Senate [for Republicans], and therein lies the rub for Mr. Cruz and much of the energy policy," he said. "My guess is that his impact will be more personal than on energy policy."

Personal in that Cruz's Hispanic roots and professional background lend him a chance to redefine a heavily white Republican Party that is trying to reach out to ethnic voters. As a new wave of nonwhite Republican stars emerge -- like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal -- Cruz stands among them and is being closely watched as a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate.

A first-generation Cuban-American, born 42 years ago in Calgary, where his father was working in the petroleum business, Cruz touts his family's experience in Cuba as motivation behind his views on achieving the American dream through limited government, fiscal responsibility and individual freedom.

Cruz ran on a platform of conservative values -- both fiscal and social -- and a narrative of promoting domestic energy development and an "all of the above" energy policy to catapult the nation into not just achieving energy independence but also becoming a global energy exporter. His positions hardly differed from his principal rival in the Republican primary, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, the initial frontrunner. But Cruz's lack of experience in elective office became a selling point as the primary developed.

"We are witnessing a great awakening," Cruz told supporters in Houston after swamping Dewhurst in a runoff at the end of July. "Millions of Texans, millions of Americans are rising up to reclaim our country, to defend liberty and to restore the Constitution."

Cruz supports allowing states to determine energy regulation on matters including hydraulic fracturing and was endorsed during the campaign by groups like the Texas Association of Business, the Associated Builders & Contractors of Texas and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Sen.-elect Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is a tea party favorite. Photo courtesy of the Cruz campaign.

"Senator-elect Ted Cruz has called for policy that will limit the scope of the federal government and reduce the federal deficit. We look forward to working with him in the 113th Congress on issues that will create growth and jobs," the U.S. Chamber said in a statement.

For the Washington, D.C.-based Independent Petroleum Association of America, the most pressing issue is tax policy, which remains tied up in the budget negotiations and could have the ability to dramatically affect oil and gas producers.

"For independent producers, our capital comes from selling the product we make, and if you raise taxes, you're essentially taking the money that we're receiving from our production as tax. And we invest that money back into new U.S. production," said Lee Fuller, IPAA vice president of government relations. "I anticipate [Cruz] will be a strong supporter as we begin the debate here in Washington."

Cruz is also an ardent supporter of the $7.6 billion Keystone XL pipeline, which, if approved, would carry crude from the Alberta oil sands to Texas refineries. He said President Obama's move to postpone a pipeline approval decision until an environmental assessment has been completed was part of the president's "war on jobs."

"With the stroke of a pen, the president eliminated tens of thousands of jobs, which the Keystone XL would've provided," Cruz told the Houston Business Journal.

The pipeline is expected to generate billions of dollars in economic activity nationwide -- but has triggered dire warnings from environmental groups.

"I strongly support exploration drilling and seeking any and all energy sources we can domestically," Cruz said in an interview posted on his website. "I think this administration has been the most hostile administration in history to the oil and gas industry."

Last year, Cruz fought the Gulf of Mexico offshore drilling moratorium that Obama initiated in the wake of the 2010 BP PLC oil spill, which became the worst environmental disaster in the nation's history.

The much-bandied-about cap-and-trade discussion will likely see no support from Cruz, who signed the grass-roots "Contract From America" that rejects the policy, arguing it hinders competitiveness, boosts unemployment and does little to prevent a warming world.

Cyrus Reed, acting chapter director of the Sierra Club's Texas-based Lone Star Chapter, expects Cruz will oppose "further regulations on emissions of carbon dioxide," such as ozone pollution standards expected to be released by U.S. EPA that could increase the number of Texas regions that don't meet the new rules. Those "nonattainment" zones, according to Fuller, "will impose significant restrictions on growth in the state" and have been problematic for Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth.

Reed also expects Cruz to oppose regulations that would establish a baseline on power plant emissions that could limit the types of plants that would be built and also limit the ability to produce coal-powered electricity unless plants have advanced technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions.

Reed isn't banking on Cruz's support when it comes to regulations of oil and gas development on federal lands, either. "We would want strong regulation that would not necessarily prohibit oil and gas development on public lands, but would limit it," he said.