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1 posts from November 2006

November 19, 2006

Election 2006

ELECTION 2006: The next Congress will shift its environmental policymaking from reverse to forward, say environmental advocates celebrating last week's election results. Two major reasons for that new direction are the defeat of a powerful House member who, critics say, was bent on weakening the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and the replacement of an influential Senate chair, who infamously called global warming a hoax, with a longtime proponent of cutting emissions of greenhouse gases. "The mood is one of excitement and anticipation," says Melissa Carey of Environmental Defense. "We haven't had a better opportunity to do something about climate change in years." The enthusiasm is tempered: Democrats are not united on the issue, have a slim majority, and face an Administration that adamantly opposes controls on emissions. Meanwhile, President George W. Bush last week asked the lame-duck Congress to pass an energy bill, fighting words for Democrats trying to block a House version that would open up much of the U.S. coastline to drilling. The biggest news in the House was the defeat of Representative Richard Pombo (R-CA). As chair of the Resources Committee, Pombo last year won House passage of his major revision of ESA. The bill has since stalled in the Senate. Environmental groups contributed more than $2 million to the campaign of Jerry McNerney, a wind-power engineer, who defeated Pombo 53% to 47%, ending the attempt to rewrite the ESA. Now environmentalists are anticipating more friendly treatment. Representative Nick Rahall (D-WV), the likely new chair, wants to reform a mining law that has led to problems with contaminated tailings, protect roadless areas in national forests, and end subsidies for offshore oil exploration. Rahall also plans to examine claims that a political appointee at the Department of the Interior distorted scientific findings to prevent the listing of endangered species.

Mcnerney

Shifting winds: Clean-energy advocate Jerry McNerney defeated Representative Richard Pombo, who pushed for domestic oil and gas exploration.


In the Senate, California's Barbara Boxer is expected to take the helm of Environment and Public Works from Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), a bĂȘte noire of the climate change community. Her priorities include legislation similar to her home state's that would cap and eventually reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. House Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi is like-minded; she co-sponsored a stalled bill proposed by Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) that would cap emissions in 2010 and then reduce them to 1990 levels over the next decade. Such a bill would likely face resistance from Representative John Dingell (D-MI), who's slated to take over the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Dingell said last week that he would "support responsible legislation" and plans to hold hearings, but he told Greenwire that Waxman's bill is "extreme." Although some advocates complain that there's already been too much talk -- 239 hearings on climate change, by one count -- others say that the shift in power has turned the debate from whether action is necessary to how much and when. Science, 17 November 2006,Vol. 314, No. 5802, p. 1061.

 




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