Rep. Richard Pombo (R, CA-11) is at it again. This time it's yet another effort to force through offshore drilling for gas and oil, ending a quarter-century old moratorium on same. I listened to this morning's debate on C-SPAN. There was a different version of this bill up Monday, which didn't look like it was going to get adequate support. So it got rewritten overnight, with - apparently - devils in many of the details, including some waiving of usual house rules in an effort to ram the bill through without real review and debate. And a major giveaway from funds from the federal treasury - not the most sensible move considering the nation's massive, record-setting debt & deficit.
This is classic Pombo. Sneaking bad provisions in during the dead of night, changing the rules to avoid processes of democracy, financial shenanigans and environmental jeopardy. (Please vote for Jerry McNerney in the Map Changers poll currently underway - today's the last day of voting.)
Cross-posted to ePluribusMedia
San Jose Mercury News says:
Instead, [the House Republicans'] signature piece of legislation is a terribly misguided bill that would reopen the California coast to offshore drilling. It would do nothing to address the nation's energy problems and, at most, would only feed America's damaging habit a bit longer. It's expected to come up for a vote today and should be defeated....Sadly, it's a Californian, Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Stockton, who is the bill's No. 1 advocate.
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Pombo's Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act would do all sorts of bad things. It would change the distribution of revenues from existing offshore drilling operations, which are mostly along the Gulf of Mexico, draining about $11 billion from the federal treasury over 10 years, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. It would put federal ocean-policy protection in the hands of states and give them perverse incentives that would encourage drilling off their coasts.
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Another place where Pombo could find inspiration for wiser energy policies is the Senate, where a bipartisan bill introduced by Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, would raise fuel-economy standards by 10 miles per gallon in 10 years. It would do far more to bring down high gas prices and to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil, not to mention reducing pollution and emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
Maybe Pombo missed it, but those are some of the nastiest side effects of America's energy addiction -- the sorts of things that make it imperative we kick the habit rather than struggle to feed it.
If I understand & recall what I heard on C-Span correctly, Pombo's bill would also require states to opt-out, rather than out-in to drilling programs, with renewed affirmation of the opt-out by state legislatures every five years. That's for the inshore areas, outer continental shelf drilling (beyond 100 miles) is opened up by the bill.
Stockton Record reports that Governor Schwarzenegger is opposing this bill, in line with the rest of the people of California, rather than the oil industry which Pombo gives priority to time after time. And who in turn have showered Pombo with favors - everything from throwing a big Pombo party at the 2004 Republican Convention in New York, to extraordinary generosity with campaign contributions.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has dismissed Tracy Rep. Richard Pombo's request for support on his bill that would open the coasts of some states to oil and gas drilling.
Although Pombo and Schwarzenegger are both Republicans, Schwarzenegger - who is locked in a re-election campaign against Democratic state Treasurer Phil Angelides - has long opposed lifting the federal moratorium on offshore drilling.
"Just last month, the House of Representatives voted once again to extend this moratorium, a process that has worked in the past and is working today to protect our coast. I see no reason to jettison this longstanding and workable approach," the governor wrote Pombo in a letter released Tuesday.
Democratic candidate for CA-Gov Angelides has gone farther than the Governator, sending a letter to all 53 members of the California House delegation urging them to vote no on the Pombo Bill. The Record also reports:
A February poll by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found that two-thirds of all Californians oppose lifting the drilling ban; that included 46 percent of Republicans.
Although the Record indicates the state of Florida is in favor of offshore drilling, the support is not exactly unanimous. In one of the previous attempts to pass this (another Pombo hallmark is to never give up - another important reason he needs to get kicked out of his Congressional seat), the St. Petersburg (FL) Times reported on 12/2/05:
In a new letter to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says drilling for oil and gas in the eastern Gulf of Mexico off Florida could hamper military training, particularly firing and flying exercises... In the letter, dated [11/30/05] Rumsfeld said areas east of a "military mission line" - about 200 miles offshore - "are esepcially critical to DoD due to the number and diversity of military testing and training activities conducted there now, and those planned for the future.
This being a position that the military has espoused consistently for more than 20 years. Interestingly, Pombo's been quick to jump up and down and throw fits over what he claims (falsely) the Endangered Species Act endangering our troops. That's due to interfering with training operations at Camp Pendleton Marine Base in California for some endangered species occurring on the base. It would seem that his concern for our troops' ability to train properly becomes less strident when it comes to favors for the energy industry.
And what about the concerns of non-military interests in Florida? Try this "news" story from the Tampa Tribune (10/31/05) which reads more like a conventional editorial:
The sole purpose of legislation adopted by the House Resources Committee this week is to make it easier to drill whereever the petroleum industry wants. That's been the Committee chair's intent from the start. Rep. Richard Pombo is a California Republican with a record of trampling environmental safeguards and doing the oil industry's bidding.
So it is discouraging that Gov. Jeb Bush and several Florida representatives, including Pinellas Rep. Mike Bilirakis, are going along with this ploy. Bush has been solid on keeping the rigs away from Florida's coast and his submission on this issue is cause for dismay.
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But as Hillsborough Rep. Jim Davis says, "Drilling proponents are relentlessly prusuing every opportunity to expand their operations, even in areas where they are not welcome. Our beaches are our livelihood, so Floridians must be vigilant in fighting these drilling efforts every step of the way."
And, besides the offshore stuff, Rep. John Salazar (D, CO-3) made a floor speech that he didn't like the oil-shale provisions vis-a-vis the Rocky Mountains. Brother to Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO), this guy's not exactly a left-wing enviro extremist type. If he doesn't like it either, I'd say it's got a lot not going for it.
This latest measure is likely to pass the House this week. Though calls to your Representative are still recommended, it's likely we'll have to look to the Senate to kill this latest measure. Aren't you sick of "putting out fires" style of public policy? It reminds me of the old silent movie Perils of Pauline series, where the villains forever tying the damsel in distress to the railroad tracks or some such. Had enough of that? Time to help send Pombo back home to California - along with a few other of his Republican corporate-serving cronies. As long as he's in office, he's gonna continue with more of this kind of crap. Jerry McNerney, who's running against Pombo, is a wind power engineer by profession, and totally gets that you don't deal with the nation's "oil addiction" by desperate efforts to feed the habit, rather than to kick it.
Please take the time to vote for Jerry McNerney (against Pombo) in the Map Changers poll to help bring visibility to the race, and some money to help in the effort, too. Today's the last day, so if you've not done so yet, don't delay. And consider donating directly to McNerney, too, if you can afford it. Either through his campaign, through DFA Grassroots All-Star endorsement, through ActBlue, or through the combined Netroots - links are around, so take your pick. Remember to add a penny to your donation, to indicate it came from a Daily Kos user. (e.g. $20.01 instead of $20, which is what I squeezed out of my own tight personal budget).
Go, Jerry! Kick Pombo's ass, because he richly deserves it!
Pombo on one of his junkets to the Marianas Islands. He's been a point-man for the cesspool of corruption, exploitation, forced abortions and sexual slavery there. Yet another reason he deserves his walking papers.