Rocky Mountain Environment Grok

What the Congressional Crystal Ball Says on the Environment

By Brodie Farquhar, 11-15-06

In the wake of last week's election results, where the Democratic Party took command of both the House and Senate, any thoughts about what this means to the environment is of necessity, speculative.

While the House Democrats have a fairly comfortable margin, they're far short of the numbers they'd need to override any vetoes by President Bush. For that reason, they can't go too far out on that leftward limb, lest Bush or the more closely matched Senate saw off that limb.

It will be very interesting to see whether the House and Senate Democrats go for bipartisanship or pay-back. The rules they adopt in January will say a great deal as to whether Republican members can actively debate, amend and play meaningful roles in legislation, or whether they'll be effectively emasculated the way they treated the Democrats for the past dozen years.

The Senate Democrats just announced assignments and Montana's newbie Senator Jon Tester is going to be a busy boy: Banking, Energy, Homeland and Government Affairs, Veterans, Small Business and Indian Affairs. (But, as Lee Newspapers reports today, no appropriations seat for Tester.)

The House still has to wrestle through the leadership process, so stay tuned.

House changes

Missing from the upcoming 110th Congress will be Rep. Dick Pombo, R-CA, who never met an oil man, miner, logger, rancher or real estate developer he didn't like. Pombo headed up the House Resources Committee, which oversees the Interior Department. His replacement will likely be Rep. Nick J. Rahall of West Virginia and ranking Democrat. Pombo's initiatives to gut the Endangered Species Act, sell off public lands and turn energy companies loose every which way are done, so stick a fork in it. There might be some symbolic legislation pushed through this lame-duck session, but any conservative wins between now and the holidays is likely to be highly transitory.

Here's what Rahall had to say in a post-election news release:

"As Chairman of this Committee, it is integral to promote sound conservation that will protect the wilderness potential of public lands, promote outdoor recreation opportunities to hunt, fish and enjoy our natural environment, and restore our oceans and fisheries.

"Americans must also be empowered by protecting their right-to-know through laws such as the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), ending corporate welfare, reclaiming Appalachia, and protecting the disenfranchised in Indian Country and our territories. As Resources Chairman, I will maintain NEPA, end royalty holidays in the OCS and give-always under the Mining Law of 1872, prioritize the reclamation of abandoned coal mines and miners, advance Native American health care, and tackle territorial issues such as political self determination."

That's a nice shopping list, but I really don't know what is doable. The key tip-off will be what the Democrats do in the first days and weeks of the 110th Congress.

IF (and this is a mighty big IF) the Democrats take a chainsaw to the knees of K Street lobbyists and drastically reduce -- heck, eliminate -- their ability to buy votes, then there is real potential for change. Additionally, both the House and the Senate would need to end "earmarking," which according to Rep. Jeff Flake -- a remarkably candid Republican from Arizona -- has become so commonplace in the past 12 years that most earmark forms are filled out by lobbyists.

If those two steps are taken, then Rahall's Resources Committee might be emboldened to enact real change.

Rahall might even be bold enough to endorse a no-snowmobiles for Yellowstone alternative, should that emerge as the preferred alternative in an upcoming environmental impact statement. For the past six years, NPS science has consistently supported the idea of replacing snowmobiles with snowcoaches, and will likely do so again.

Snowmobiles, wolves, grizzly bears -- it remains to be seen whether money or science will drive decision making in the next two years.

I know next to nothing about the Democrats on the House Ag Committee, which would have jurisdiction over the Forest Service and out national forests. The only Westerners I recognized were South Dakota's Herseth and Salazar of southern Colorado.

Rep. John Dingle, D-MI is the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Dingle has long been a handmaiden to the auto industry. With 57,000 auto jobs in the tank this year, does he understand that Detroit has to be saved from itself?

I dunno.

Democratic membership in that committee is pretty skimpy for Westerners: Diana DeGette of Colorado, Jay Inslee of Washington and a few Californians, such as Henry Waxman.

Senate changes

Moving on to the Senate Committee of the Environment and Public Works, Sen. James "Global climate change is a hoax" Inhoff will be replaced by Sen. Barbara Boxer of California. I sure hope Inhoff takes his blood-pressure medication -- he's gonna need it. Boxer takes man-made climate change very seriously, so look for bills boosting alternative energy and bills to penalize, mitigate or sequester all things CO2.

Montana's Max Baucus is on this committee -- we'll have to see if any new Dems are appointed.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee has jurisdiction over energy resources and development, including regulation, conservation, strategic petroleum reserves and appliance standards; nuclear energy; Indian affairs; public lands and their renewable resources; surface mining, Federal coal, oil, and gas, other mineral leasing; territories and insular possessions; and water resources. Leadership will shift from Pete Domenici to Jeff Bingaman. This committee is dominated by Westerners. If they can find the money, they'll help the national parks cover their maintenance backlog -- a popular, bipartisan move.

Georgia's Saxby Chambliss will hand over the gavel to Iowa's Tom Harkin when the Dems take over at the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee. Dorgan, Baucus, Salazar, Conrad and Nelson are the other Western Dems, soon to be joined by whom? This committee is hugely important to ranchers and farmers, loggers, the Forest Service and recreationists.

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