Sunday, Nov. 12, 2006 | 1:18 a.m.
With postelection Capitol Hill awash with Democrats, environmentalists are expecting to regain their traction nationally, first by reversing federal policies that weakened their movement and then by championing a new domestic energy policy.
Conservationists are celebrating the defeat of Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., who has made a career out of pummeling environmentalists and environmental law - the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act - and supporting oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Pombo was chairman of the House Resources Committee, where he worked closely with Republican Jim Gibbons, the Nevada congressman-turned-governor-elect.
Gibbons and Pombo wanted changes to federal environmental safeguards and two years ago co-authored a pamphlet arguing that the federal government overstated the dangers of mercury, a potentially toxic metal produced in mining and coal-fired power plants.
Pombo, noted for his disputed claims that federal and state conservation rules had hurt his ranching business in Tracy, Calif., became the target of both opposition money and organizing support from conservation groups throughout the country.
The Humane Society Legislative Fund, the political arm of the venerable animal-welfare group, gave bipartisan support to numerous politicians, including Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., but made Pombo the group's No.1 target because of his support of horse slaughter, commercial whaling, animal trapping in wildlife refuges and other issues.
Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, the nation's largest membership-based environmental organization, called Pombo's defeat the group's "biggest victory."
Replacing Pombo will be Democrat Jerry McNerney, an outspoken advocate for renewable energy - a position that happens to mirror the agendas of national environmental groups.
Jane Feldman, a Southern Nevada Sierra Club activist, said the fates of Pombo and Gibbons reflect national success and a Silver State disappointment for her camp.
"Nationally, I think environmentalists are celebrating on just about every front," Feldman said Wednesday. "The national picture is so much better than it was a day ago."
In Nevada, however, Gibbons' victory was a defeat for the Sierra Club, which had backed Sen. Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, in the gubernatorial race. Only one of the state's congressional seats went to the Sierra Club's endorsed candidates.
"We are going to have to make the best of it," Feldman said with a sigh.
But the environmentalist still sees a strong green caucus in the Nevada Legislature, including Titus in the Senate.
Gibbons may have the Governor's Mansion, but the Democrats still have the Assembly, Feldman noted.
Statewide and nationally, environmentalists promise that energy will be a top priority. Green advocates lost the battle four years ago to block the Bush administration's energy policies, which were written with considerable coordination with powerful energy companies.
Feldman said her group, bolstered by the midterm elections, will advocate for new energy policies that encourage renewable sources, limit fossil-fuel dependence and reduce pollution.
Eric Antebi, a national Sierra Club spokesman, agreed that the election opens up new opportunities.
"Richard Pombo was an ideological extremist and somebody who gave preferential treatment to big oil and other special interests that had business before his committee," Antebi said. As chairman of the Resources Committee, Pombo "set the agenda for our parks, our forests and other public resources in this country."
Staunch ideological opponents to the environmentalists agreed that Pombo's loss was significant.
Myron Ebell, director of energy policy for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington, D.C., policy group, bemoaned the change in House leadership.
"Rep. Richard Pombo's defeat was clearly the biggest loss for those of us who support protected property rights, reforming the Endangered Species Act and lowering energy prices by increasing domestic energy production," Ebell said.
Antebi, Pope and Feldman agreed that energy policy would be paramount. There are likely to be discussions of federal support and tax credits for renewable energy, including those sources plentiful in the Silver State: wind, geothermal and solar energy.
Richard Powers, a partner with Washington, D.C., law firm Venable LLP, which has represented oil and gas companies and pipeline producers, said it is too soon to predict how energy policy will shake out. Many Democrats, including some of the newly elected crowd in the House and Senate, come from oil- and coal-producing states, he points out.
"It's good that we will focus on energy policy," Powers said. "That's an ongoing dialogue that we should be having. What will come out of it, that's not clear to me at this time. Congress typically acts when there are emergencies: gas prices going up, heating oil shortages ... We have a lot of resources in this country and we need to look at them intelligently.
"If you look at where they're from, there are some Democrats tied to the coal and even the nuclear industries."
But clean alternative energy is going to be in the mix, predicted Powers, who also represents North Carolina-based Solargenix Energy Co., which is building a solar-power center outside of Boulder City capable of producing enough electricity to serve 48,000 homes.
A federal energy tax credit that helped spur investment in the $100 million project, expected to begin producing power early next year, runs through 2007. Incentives could be extended to give investors longer-term confidence in new technologies, Powers said.
Antebi said the Democratic victories in Western states - Nevada being a notable exception - will elevate the region's role in defining the new environmental agenda. Because new energy policies will have to include dialogue with Western leaders, those perspectives will be taken into account in developing new energy policies and technologies, he said.
"In states that have traditionally been places that Republicans could take for granted, Democrats are making gains," he said. "They are making gains by strongly advocating rural values, by making connections between the environmental and rural values. Constituencies that used to be divided are working together on common issues - ranchers and hunters, conservationists and urban environmentalists.
"The hostile agenda of the Bush administration on environmental matters has forced us to dig down and make some very important alliances. There has been a change. The political leadership reflects those new coalitions."
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