Floridians help block California Republican plan to renew drilling

[struggle4progress]

By FRANK HARTZELL Of The Beacon -


A California Republican congressman's effort to use Hurricane Katrina's devastation as reason to reopen California's long closed coastline to natural gas and possibly oil drilling has apparently been defeated for now by a Republican-led Florida congressional delegation.

The gas drilling effort, which gained national publicity and local opposition over the past two weeks, was led by Congressman Richard Pombo, R-Tracy despite two decades of bipartisan opposition to offshore oil drilling in California.

Pombo pulled his panel's legislation that would have allowed renewed offshore oil drilling in California and the eastern seaboard after nearly all House members from Florida attacked the plan, according to Congress Daily AM. Pombo will pursue legislation for oil and natural gas drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. <snip>

http://www.mendocinobeacon.com/Stories/0,1413,94~3593~3083186,00.html

[AlCzervik]

1. Pombo is a disgusting pig feeding at the corporate troff.

[jamesinca]

4. Pombo believes the Endangered Species Act is a waste

He thinks it is not worth the paper it is written on. He Feels that it takes away from property rights.

[struggle4progress]

5. He seems to have a history of lying, too:

Pombo? Oh, No.
by Chris Clarke

<snip> In March 1997, Pombo attempted to pin the above-mentioned January flood in the Central Valley on the ESA, charging that levee repair work had been delayed to protect the valley elderberry longhorned beetle. The Feds had long exempted disaster-related work from ESA considerations, and the ESA had no effect on levee construction.

Then there's the time he testified before the Senate Environment Committee that he had suffered untold financial damage because his ranch had been declared critical habitat for the San Joaquin kit fox. An alert reporter determined that this had not, in fact, happened, and Mollie Beattie, late head of the Fish and Wildlife Service, pointed this out in a public forum. Pombo retreated a bit, saying it "may have been one of his neighbors' ranches." Finally, after having it pointed out to him that no critical habitat had been declared anywhere for the fox at that point, he caved. <snip>

http://www.faultline.org/news/2002/03/pombo.html

[Gormy Cuss]

2. Pombo is just mad with power these days.

I do so hope he loses next year. The man has never met an enviromental protection he doesn't loathe.

[AlCzervik]

3. it doesn't look like anyone is running against him yet

i heard a name or 2 floated but nothing solid. Pombo is imo the worst member of the California reps.

[Gormy Cuss]

6. No competition --- he's won the race to the bottom

Last I heard there's no opposition lined up for certain but half of his district is really East Bay (conservative purple, but still East Bay.) I know more than a few people in Danville who would rather be back in Ellen Tauscher's district because they're moderates. Hell, if Tauscher moved her residence a few miles then she could go head to head with him. Maybe that should be the plan. I'd risk a Republican in the 10th if we could rid ourselves of Pombo.

[Califooyah Operative]

7. jerrymcnerney.org

http://www.jerrymcnerney.org