Washington Watch: Winter 2007

"Opinions cannot survive if one has no chance to fight for them." -- Thomas Mann

In the 2006 midterm elections Americans voted for change, and the results represent a fundamental shift in the politics of the environment. For the first time in years, a top environmental priority appeared on both parties' platforms: energy.

Energy -- clean, reliable, and homegrown -- promises to be a big deal in the halls of the 110th Congress. The new House and Senate leadership are strong supporters of environmental protection, including the presumptive Speaker of the House, California Democrat Nancy Pelosi, who announced her intent to make clean energy and global warming legislation top priorities during her first 100 days on the job. No discussion of the results of this election would be complete without a mention of the race where the environment played a central role in determining the outcome. Voters gave the boot to Representative Richard Pombo, a California Republican best known for his no-holds-barred efforts to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling during his chairmanship of the House Resources Committee. He came to Congress with an anti-environment agenda 14 years ago, and it was his overreaching anti-environment record that led to his defeat by Democrat Jerry McNerney, an expert in wind engineering and renewable energy.

In the Senate, California Democrat Barbara Boxer will take over the chairmanship of the Environment and Public Works Committee from James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican who once said global warming is the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people." Boxer has promised to make global warming and public health top priorities for the committee.