Pombo's reign as House Resources Committee Chairman as well as his term in office ended with the closing of the 109th Congress.  In other words, one of the worst environmental congressmen in memory went the way of his bad bill.  Seven-term incumbent Pombo was defeated by an environmentalist and renewable energy advocate Jay McNerney in November.  Earlier in the year, Pombo's bill to gut the Endangered Species Act actually passed the House of Representatives but failed to make it out of the Senate Environment and Public Works committee thanks to Lincoln Chaffee and others in the committee who saw the bill as divisive and counter to the spirit and intent of the Act. In a year when Republicans controlled the White House and both chambers of Congress, many saw 2006 as the best chance corporate interests had to fulfill their long-sought after agenda of gutting one of the most powerful and effective environmental laws we have, the Endangered Species Act. For an excellent synopsis of the legacy of Pombo's bill as well as its impact on his reelection bid, see Bill Shnieder's story in New West called Pombo, Green Anger and the Endangered Species Act.

So, what's to come in 2007?
Top Bush administration officials are already planning on weakening the Endangered Species Act and other heritage environmental laws administratively.  They plan to use their interpretation of recent public listening sessions as an excuse to make "cooperative and voluntary" much of what makes our nation's heritage environmental laws effective and compelling.  Doing so could render such important laws as the Endangered Species Act, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and National Environmental Protection Act largely unenforceable.  Stay tuned in the coming months for news on this.