Special note for E&E: Pombo is gone.

[NNadir]

One of the worst congressmen for the environment - a rapacious property rights libertarian type extremist - is gone, removed from office.

It's just a special day, a real special day. Here's to us: :toast:

I hope we take a moment to enjoy it, but not for too long. It is easier to criticize government, especially government that borders on pure evil, than it is to effectively govern. The challenges before us are enormous and we will all have to work very hard, as much damage has been done. We still have that beast in the White House, of course, so it will not be easy by any stretch to do the right thing. (Hopefully something can be done about that too - but it will take time.)

I am thrilled, so much so that I could even kiss an anti-nuclear "renewables will save us" advocate (but not on the mouth.)

I am happy to note I have recently learned that new Speaker of the House of Representatives has spoken wisely about an issue near and dear to my heart.

[Odin2005]

1. Thank God.

[GreenArrow]

2. "One of the worst congressmen for the environment"

One of the worst congresspersons, period. His defeat was one of the personal highpoints of the evening for me.

[Burma Jones]

3. Bueno

that guy was a real.........piece of work.......

[Maraya1969]

4. Just got an email about it. Wonderful news!

[hunter]

5. Mr. Healthy Forests.

We had to build roads and cut down the forest in order to save it!

[sinkingfeeling]

6. Music to my ears!!

[jpak]

7. Pombo - extinct

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy...

:rofl:

[Kolesar]

8. Now environmentalists can actually do work, instead of being on defense

...which is where the Bushies and Pombo had us. This is a great day!

[hatrack]

9. YEEEEAAAAAGHH!!!!!!!!

:evilgrin:

[skids]

10. Pombo: one of the ten greatest environmental catastrophies of the 00's n/t

[Eugene]

11. Thank you, California!

:applause:

[Viking12]

12. ..and when the vote is official in VA, Inhofe will be gone too!!!

Neeless to say, he's been a distaster as EPW Chair.

[StrictlyRockers]

13. God, I am so happy about this. He is from next county over.

[Nothing Without Hope]

14. yes, that was one of the first races I checked, and I'm from the other side

of the country. He is one of the most corrupt Representatives, specializing in literally selling federal lands and resources dirt cheap to big corporations in mining, real estate, and "development" of all the bad kinds. Absolutely ANYTHING to increase their profits at the expense of the environment and the public. For a while there we were fighting fiercely to head off legislative language he had slipped into an unrelated bill at the last minute, trying to sneak it under the radar. There could have been condos on the rim of the Grand Canyon and strip mines and oil wells just about anywhere, all public lands and resources sold for a tiny fraction of their worth.

For those who want some of the back story on this terrible man, here's my current file of links relating to him:
http://www.pombointheirpocket.org/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/03/AR2005120300109.html?referrer=email&referrer=email
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2005512040367
http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/2005_12_01_firedoglake_archive.html#113374107207705275
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Dec/20051216News028.asp
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x79776
http://www.alternet.org/story/31381/
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-mining8feb08,0,4053265.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-calcongress20may20,0,3252816.story?track=tothtml

This rapacious, corrupt slimeball has been the chair of the House Resources Committee, where he made the most of the opportunity to sell out all aspects of public lands and resources and the environment to the corporate interests who funded him. There was apparently no lower limit to the ethics of his schemes. He was always trying to pass terrible sell-out legislation and slip devastating sneaky language in secretly so that sweeping changes could be made without alerting the public or legislators who didn't notice the last-minute insertions.

He also received significant payments from Abramoff's group (according to the WaPo, $36,000).

One of the worst in the House, and that's saying something.

[fooj]

17. Hello, my friend.

It's a beautiful day, isn't it?

:hi:

[Nothing Without Hope]

29. Hello, Fooj! yes, it's a beautiful day.

:pals:

I've been planning to "find the right moment" to reply to your very kind PM of a few days back. Thank you for that.

[Dead_Parrot]

15. Beers all round, I think...

:toast::woohoo::beer:

[phantom power]

16. And another round on me!

:toast:
:beer:

[NNadir]

18. And now a round on me.

:toast: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer:

[Dead_Parrot]

24. An another, for taking the senate...

:beer::beer::beer:
:toast:

(Who's paying, btw?)

[NNadir]

25. Well, we've been paying for years.

These are on me, for the Senate:

:beer: :beer: :beer: :beer:

Damn if I'm not getting drunk.

[Dead_Parrot]

26. Don't blame you...

...I'm celebrating with with a beer, and it's not even my country.
:toast:

[NNadir]

27. You mean New Zealand isn't a state?

You learn something every day...

[Dead_Parrot]

28. Well, not yet.

There are worrying reports of a few EJ of gas in the Southern Basin, but no sign of any liberation bombs this week. I'm still free to use "centre" and "realise"... :)

[texpatriot2004]

19. WOO HOO! Thank goodness that wicked Pombo is out! nm

[OnionPatch]

20. I was happy about all our wins, but

I was so glad about this one that I sprung up and did a victory dance across the living room when I heard. :woohoo:

[YankeyMCC]

21. Very nice indeed, but

let's keep the pressure on Dingell to do the right thing. Its already a little discouraging when practically his first statements are that he wont look to strengthen gas mileage requirements.

[NNadir]

22. We must engage our representatives and senators, now that we have

representatives and senators again. In this sense I think you are right. We should call for higher fuel efficiency standards.

That said, I do not expect that everything the Democrats do will be right, but I do expect that they will have what is best for their country seriously in mind. That, thinking about what is best for the country, has been missing from government since President-elected Gore was denied his office.

I note that Newt Gingrich acted in 1994 as if he had been elected President and dictator. He was seriously outmanuevered by the smarter (and more moral) Mr. Clinton for the good of our future. We must be smarter than the disgraced Gingrich was. We do not control either the courts - the worst of the new Supreme Court is about to be experienced in the next two years in my opinion - nor do we control any of the executive branch.

I think the American people have called on us to stem the bleeding - and although I am an atheist some part of me prays we can do this - because our country and our planet are bleeding to death. On the other hand we must function in such a way as to work within our limits.

[mainegreen]

23. Oh good.

[Viking12]

30. McNerney is a wind engineer & the CEO of a wind power startup.

Ironic that the resident renewable hater is so thrilled with the new Congressman.

[NNadir]

32. Pombo was making a killing in wind too.

Windfarm regulations
Pombo's home town of Tracy, California has a large wind farm on Altamont Pass. In 2004, Pombo’s office sent a letter to then-Secretary of the Department of the Interior Gale Norton, urging the suspension of environmental guidelines opposed by the wind power industry. Pombo’s parents have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties from wind-powered turbines on their 300-acre ranch. Pombo owns an interest in his parents' ranch.<17>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pombo

Wind Entrepreneurs in the Wyly family - the Green Mountain people - were instrumental in presenting the former Governor of Texas, a guy named George W. Bush, as a man with impeccable environmental credentials.


http://www.boycottgreenmountain.com/mccain-ads-austin.html

It is not surprising at all that a person representing me as a "renewable hater" is as spectacularly misinformed about my position as he or she is about just about everything else.

I don't hate renewable energy. On the other hand I do of despise low level thinkers who want to pretend that renewable energy alone can address climate change. If it could do so, I contend, we'd see some evidence already since people have been talking about this subject forever. I am not enthused by anyone's religion. I want something done and therefore I engage in the wholly embarrassing enterprise of acknowledging reality.

No more than anyone else on the planet, I am doing nothing to stop renewable energy. Everybody loves renewable energy. I merely note that this fact, that everybody loves it, coupled with the fact that after 50 years of loving it doesn't produce more than a pittance, means it's not enough. We'll hear lots and lots of crap from jerk-offs about what solar energy might do in 2050, but the same jerk-offs have not bothered to check whether their predecessors were saying the same damn thing in 1970. This is because the renewable conceit depends of a withered ability to comprehend very much. As part of this monumental capacity for self-delusion, denial, and outright misrepresentation, I note that many wind profiteers are Republicans, including Congressman Pombo.

I simply note that there is no data anywhere on earth, no announced plans anywhere on earth, to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy. Not one. Even the dunderheads at Greenpeace are talking - even though they make up most of what they say - about replacing 100% of fossil fuels. Instead they merely issue nonsense statements of what they say might happen by 2050, usually some pathetic number between 30% and 70%. In fact though people speaking like them have a zero percent history of actually delivering anything other than circus stunts and self-promoting propaganda.

Given the half a century old tradition of wishful thinking on renewable energy, we need nuclear energy. That's the core of my argument. Anything that comes from renewable energy in the next 50 years is welcome, but it won't be enough. I'm sorry that you can't grasp that any more than you can grasp that Pombo has been making money on wind energy for some time, probably longer than his replacement has. (None of this argues against wind, of course, but it simply means that noting that wind power is not a panacea makes one fond of Repukes.) Apparently that fact that the world needs nuclear energy bugs you, but your position doesn't mean anything to anyone serious. The anti-nuclear argument is as irrelevant as it is irrational. Right now the world is contemplating adding 56% as much new nuclear capacity as it has right now.

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/reactors.htm

Mind you, nuclear energy has been producing on a tens of exajoules scale for more than two and a half decades now. In fact last year the world produced more nuclear energy than ever before, about 2500 terawatt hours.

I note that as primary thermal energy, this capacity added to current capacity will amount to more than 60 exajoules of primary energy annually, just about half of the energy now provided by coal. I have little doubt that in the next 5 years the plans will include as much nuclear capacity as the entire coal output on the planet. I suspect that - as has happened in France - if this trend continues - the only use for coal by the middle of this century will be to make steel and maybe carbon fibers for tennis rackets and the like. None of the middle class brats in Greenpeace can doing a fucking thing about this trend. The world doesn't give a fuck what Greenpeace types think. Tough shit.

[depakid]

31. Good riddance

That man was evil (and I don't throw that word around lightly).

He belongs in prison, not the House of Representatives.

[Nothing Without Hope]

33. Crooks & Liars put up a nice collection of Pombo history:

No videos, but a terrorizing trip down memory lane (much from an Alternet article with many links) with updates. Pombo is such a greedy, conscienceless monster, I'm sure he'll have a very lucrative consulting/business career.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/11/10/goodbye-to-eco-nightmare-pombo