Down to Earth Blog

Outlook Is Sunny With Pombo Out and Democrats In: As Grist magazine pointed out yesterday, environmentalists were hopeful after this week's midterm elections. Or as this more recent article from the San Diego Union-Tribune says, enviros are elated. One big reason: Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), who controlled the House Resources Committee, lost his re-election bid to a wind-energy expert who wants to reduce America's reliance on fossil fuels. Pombo wanted to weaken the Endangered Species Act and open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

With the Democrats now controlling Congress, we might see some movement on enviromental issues -- higher gas mileage standards, maybe investments in renewable energy technologies -- but it seems that foreign policy, national security and economic issues will be at the forefront of House-Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi's agenda.

What do you think will happen? Will there be siginificant movement in Congress on environmental issues in the next two years? Or will the environment take a back seat to other concerns? Should it? Please post your thoughts.

Technorati Tags: Elections, Environment, Pombo , Politics , Pelosi , Democrats , Endangered Species , Arctic Wildlife Refuge

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• #1 Comment from mepris25
  11/14/06 5:54 PM | Permalink

  This seems promising.  With the urgency of our global warming crisis, the focus on change needs to be transferred to our government.  The nation as a whole must create the shift in American lifestyles in order to effect a significant change on our environment.  Asking the individual to self-prescribe a new lifestyle will never have the result that our government can enact for the entirety of the country.  I hope this new government's focus will be on creating a better world for everyone, not just wealthy Americans.