Lisa Murkowski celebrates GOP victory by screaming 'I am the chairman!'

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, celebrated the Republican victory on Election night by holding a chair over her head while screaming "I am the chairmaaaaan!"

The new chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources made her victory cry during an election night party in an Anchorage hotel ballroom. NPR captured the moment and her comments on her future agenda.

"I come from a state where we see a warming. We're seeing it with increased water temperatures; we're seeing it with ice that is thinner; we're seeing it with migratory patterns that are changing," she said. "So I look at this and I say this is something that we must address."

While she acknowledges the reality of climate change, she did not specify the cause. She said the volcano in Iceland could be a greater threat than man-made environment pollution.

"The emissions that are being put in the air by that volcano are a thousand years' worth of emissions that would come from all of the vehicles, all of the manufacturing in Europe," she said.