Pombo lays out case against species act

Sacramento Bee ^ | 7/16/6 | David Whitney

[SmithL]

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Richard Pombo, the Tracy Republican who heads the House Resources Committee, stirs conflict with almost every major initiative he launches, from offshore drilling to Indian gambling.

Few members of Congress have as much influence over the nation's environmental laws as Pombo. And no topic has been more contentious than his legislation to overhaul the Endangered Species Act.

The House approved Pombo's sweeping rewrite of the 1973 law on a 229-193 vote in September. It was widely denounced by environmentalists as a disturbing retreat from habitat protection and a paperwork nightmare for agencies seeking to revive the country's 1,268 threatened and endangered plants and animals, 186 of which are in California.

In the Senate, Pombo's bill was greeted even by Republicans with a measure of skepticism. The Bush administration, while supporting it, is worried about the cost of Pombo's plan to compensate landowners for restrictions on their property use.

In an interview, Pombo discussed why he thinks the act signed into law by President Nixon needs an overhaul and how his bill would work.

Q: What are your problems with the Endangered Species Act now?

A: I didn't like the way it treated private property owners. It was heavy-handed. It didn't really matter what the facts were on the ground or what the science was. It was decisions being driven by somebody in Washington who had never even been to the area being regulated.

[SmithL]

Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, says he thinks the Endangered Species Act needs to be overhauled because it is heavy-handed in the way it treats private property owners and because it doesn't help species recover.

[SmithL]

I wish Pombo was my Congress-critter.

[Wacka]

Pombo is my congressman and the local paper is doing everything they can to try to defeat the only Republican house member from the SF Bay area.

[george76]

http://www.richardpombo.com/contactus.asp

[Ole Okie]

It was widely denounced by environmentalists as a disturbing retreat from habitat protection

Good Lord! I took two years of Latin in high school many years ago. The Latin term "habitat" almost makes me vomit.

When I see it, I know the envirowackos are about to scam some more valuable land from the rightful owners.

As Walt Kelly of Pogo fame was wont to say, "Wonder what language the Romans used for the 24 karat bamboozle."