You can kiss any chance of ESA reform goodbye.
The only chance we have is the lame ducks in the Senate pass a bill (like the House already did) before the term expires. Not likely.
Full Version: You Can Kiss Any Chance Of Esa Reform Goodbye
Not only have the Republicans lost control of the House, but Richard Pombo, chairman of the House Resources Committee and champion of ESA reform has lost his seat in congress.
You can kiss any chance of ESA reform goodbye.
The only chance we have is the lame ducks in the Senate pass a bill (like the House already did) before the term expires. Not likely.
You can kiss any chance of ESA reform goodbye.
The only chance we have is the lame ducks in the Senate pass a bill (like the House already did) before the term expires. Not likely.
Yes..that sucks. I'm sure danny boy and his cronies had quite a party last night...
QUOTE(BeachHead @ Nov 8 2006, 05:43 AM) [snapback]1962594[/snapback]
Yes..that sucks. I'm sure danny boy and his cronies had quite a party last night...
It looks like the greens will take control of both houses.
Expect an all out attack on our right to use public lands for OHVs. Fully expect the greens to demand and get a lot more wilderness areas. I wonder if we will have any place to ride in 2 years.
Mike
From Patterson's Blog, posted today: 
and
http://dpatterson.blogspot.com/
QUOTE
Westward, in Central California, the win of Jerry McNerney over Dick Pombo is huge for conservation! Maybe now we can get some decent environmental bills heard and passed in the House?
and
QUOTE
Speaker-elect Pelosi and the House must strongly take on Bush right away in 07. We expect congress in January to quickly and aggressively start challenging all the Bush failures, on Iraq, environment, privacy, etc.
http://dpatterson.blogspot.com/
And on the Sierra Club website:
QUOTE
In a stunning victory for environmentalists, wind power consultant Jerry McNerney defeated seven-term Congressman Richard Pombo in California’s 11th district. Hundreds of volunteers from the Sierra Club and other environmental and labor organizations worked the phones and knocked on doors in support of McNerney and against Pombo -- arguably the most environmentally hostile member of Congress. It was just one of many vitally important contests all across America in which the Sierra Club played a pivotal role.
TUCSON -- Arizona and the west are changing politically, for the better. Regular people, like me and my family, will be benefit.
Arizonans re-elected centrist dem Governor Napolitano, increased the minimum wage, cut factory farming animal cruelty, rejected a gay union/marriage ban, and curbed secondhand smoke dangers.
The election of Gabrielle Giffords to the US House is a great moment. I'm especially thrilled she won in rural Cochise County, where I spent half of October helping move voters her way. Gabby will serve well, fighting for fairness for families, and against corruption, global warming, and big corporate dominance of Washington. She will be a star in DC, and most importantly an effective voice for everyone.
Harry Mitchell's win over bad guy JD Hayworth shows that metro Phoenix, the 5th largest city in the US, is moving left. Arizona has gone purple, keeping dems Grijalva and Pastor, and picking up CD8 & 5, to make an evenly split US House delegation.
Too bad Jim Pederson lost, but he ran a solid race and exposed Jon Kyl. Thanks, Jim.
Westward, in Central California, the win of Jerry McNerney over Dick Pombo is huge for conservation! Maybe now we can get some decent environmental bills heard and passed in the House?
Overall, my family and I are pleased with the election results, but we'll all have to keep working to ensure meaningful change from the new congress.
Speaker-elect Pelosi and the House must strongly take on Bush right away in 07. We expect congress in January to quickly and aggressively start challenging all the Bush failures, on Iraq, environment, privacy, etc.
I'm going out into the warm AZ sun now to remove all the campaign signs now littering our neighborhood.
Arizonans re-elected centrist dem Governor Napolitano, increased the minimum wage, cut factory farming animal cruelty, rejected a gay union/marriage ban, and curbed secondhand smoke dangers.
The election of Gabrielle Giffords to the US House is a great moment. I'm especially thrilled she won in rural Cochise County, where I spent half of October helping move voters her way. Gabby will serve well, fighting for fairness for families, and against corruption, global warming, and big corporate dominance of Washington. She will be a star in DC, and most importantly an effective voice for everyone.
Harry Mitchell's win over bad guy JD Hayworth shows that metro Phoenix, the 5th largest city in the US, is moving left. Arizona has gone purple, keeping dems Grijalva and Pastor, and picking up CD8 & 5, to make an evenly split US House delegation.
Too bad Jim Pederson lost, but he ran a solid race and exposed Jon Kyl. Thanks, Jim.
Westward, in Central California, the win of Jerry McNerney over Dick Pombo is huge for conservation! Maybe now we can get some decent environmental bills heard and passed in the House?
Overall, my family and I are pleased with the election results, but we'll all have to keep working to ensure meaningful change from the new congress.
Speaker-elect Pelosi and the House must strongly take on Bush right away in 07. We expect congress in January to quickly and aggressively start challenging all the Bush failures, on Iraq, environment, privacy, etc.
I'm going out into the warm AZ sun now to remove all the campaign signs now littering our neighborhood.
Pombo's defeat recharges environmental movement
By Douglas Fischer, STAFF WRITER
Inside Bay Area
Article Launched:11/08/2006 12:02:49 PM PST
Finally the environment has a voice in Congress.
Activists, emboldened by Democratic gains across the nation Tuesday, savored what Carl Pope of the Sierra Club called "the most successful mid-term election for the environmental movement" since at least 1974.
And the "sweetest victory of the night" was the toppling of Republican Rep. Richard Pombo by wind-energy consultant Jerry McNerney.
McNerney captured "Pombo country" by 10,350 votes, 53.2 percent to 46.8 percent with all precincts reporting. Pombo, a once-and-future rancher and real estate developer, chairman of House Resources Committee and easily Public Enemy No. 1 of Sierra Club & Co., goes home after 14 years in Congress.
The environmental movement campaigned heavily for McNerney, almost single-handedly putting in play a district that most media and political consultants had written off as unwinnable.
A Democratic win in California's District 11 was a sign that even some of Northern California's most conservative voters had had enough of the Bush administration's and the Republican Congress' efforts to undo environmental protections and exploit natural resources, said Pope, the Sierra Club's executive director.
"This sends a clear message to those who might share (Pombo's) ideology: When it comes to elections, the environment is a giant killer."
And not just in California. Environmental groups targeted more than 30 "top of the ticket" elections across the nation and came up winners in almost all cases, Pope said.
The green movement can now count 20 new environmental votes in the U.S. House of Representatives, five new votes in the U.S. Senate and at least four new governorships. Those include:
-- McNerney in California's District 11 race, a wind-energy consultant who presents almost a polar opposite of Pombo.
-- Former National Football League quarterback Heath Shuler in North Carolina, who defeated Rep. Charles Taylor, a reliable pro-timber industry vote on forest issues.
-- Bob Casey in Pennsylvania, who toppled Sen. Rick Santorum, perhaps the Senate's most right-wing voice on many issues, including resource protection.
-- Sherrod Brown and Ted Strickland in Ohio, the state's newest senator and governor, respectively, both members of the Sierra Club's "renewable energy hall of fame." Their opponents were both in the organization's energy "hall of shame."
-- Democrat governor-elect Bill Ritter of Colorado, who promises to add Colorado to a growing list of western states pushing for stronger environmental protections.
But the undoing of President Bush's environmental record will not come from the Congress, where analysts see great potential for gridlock after so many years of bitter partisan bickering. Rather, said Pope, it will come from states and cities, where much of the push for renewable energy and environmental protection is ongoing.
Six states, for instance, have called for the development of renewable energy -- though California, after Tuesday's defeat of Proposition 87, is not among them. Twenty-five have rejected the Bush administration's changes on mercury regulations. The federal courts have rejected the administration's efforts to open roadless areas of national forests to logging and mining.
And California leads the nation in its effort to curb greenhouse gases, and environmentalists hope soon to see a version of the bill Gov. Schwarzenegger signed earlier this year on the floor of a Democrat-controlled House.
"We have new leadership," Pope said. "We can only hope the administration's head-in-the-sand approach to global warming is no longer operative."
By Douglas Fischer, STAFF WRITER
Inside Bay Area
Article Launched:11/08/2006 12:02:49 PM PST
Finally the environment has a voice in Congress.
Activists, emboldened by Democratic gains across the nation Tuesday, savored what Carl Pope of the Sierra Club called "the most successful mid-term election for the environmental movement" since at least 1974.
And the "sweetest victory of the night" was the toppling of Republican Rep. Richard Pombo by wind-energy consultant Jerry McNerney.
McNerney captured "Pombo country" by 10,350 votes, 53.2 percent to 46.8 percent with all precincts reporting. Pombo, a once-and-future rancher and real estate developer, chairman of House Resources Committee and easily Public Enemy No. 1 of Sierra Club & Co., goes home after 14 years in Congress.
The environmental movement campaigned heavily for McNerney, almost single-handedly putting in play a district that most media and political consultants had written off as unwinnable.
A Democratic win in California's District 11 was a sign that even some of Northern California's most conservative voters had had enough of the Bush administration's and the Republican Congress' efforts to undo environmental protections and exploit natural resources, said Pope, the Sierra Club's executive director.
"This sends a clear message to those who might share (Pombo's) ideology: When it comes to elections, the environment is a giant killer."
And not just in California. Environmental groups targeted more than 30 "top of the ticket" elections across the nation and came up winners in almost all cases, Pope said.
The green movement can now count 20 new environmental votes in the U.S. House of Representatives, five new votes in the U.S. Senate and at least four new governorships. Those include:
-- McNerney in California's District 11 race, a wind-energy consultant who presents almost a polar opposite of Pombo.
-- Former National Football League quarterback Heath Shuler in North Carolina, who defeated Rep. Charles Taylor, a reliable pro-timber industry vote on forest issues.
-- Bob Casey in Pennsylvania, who toppled Sen. Rick Santorum, perhaps the Senate's most right-wing voice on many issues, including resource protection.
-- Sherrod Brown and Ted Strickland in Ohio, the state's newest senator and governor, respectively, both members of the Sierra Club's "renewable energy hall of fame." Their opponents were both in the organization's energy "hall of shame."
-- Democrat governor-elect Bill Ritter of Colorado, who promises to add Colorado to a growing list of western states pushing for stronger environmental protections.
But the undoing of President Bush's environmental record will not come from the Congress, where analysts see great potential for gridlock after so many years of bitter partisan bickering. Rather, said Pope, it will come from states and cities, where much of the push for renewable energy and environmental protection is ongoing.
Six states, for instance, have called for the development of renewable energy -- though California, after Tuesday's defeat of Proposition 87, is not among them. Twenty-five have rejected the Bush administration's changes on mercury regulations. The federal courts have rejected the administration's efforts to open roadless areas of national forests to logging and mining.
And California leads the nation in its effort to curb greenhouse gases, and environmentalists hope soon to see a version of the bill Gov. Schwarzenegger signed earlier this year on the floor of a Democrat-controlled House.
"We have new leadership," Pope said. "We can only hope the administration's head-in-the-sand approach to global warming is no longer operative."
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