Environmental leaders cheered by election results
By Bruce Geiselman

Nov. 8 -- Environmentalists and conservationists are heralding Tuesday´s election results, which will sweep Democrats into control in the House and possibly the Senate.

Democrats appeared headed toward an easy majority in the House, while the balance of control in the Senate will be determined by the eventual outcome of a race in Virginia that was too close to call and may be headed for a recount.

"Voters clearly voted for big change, not big oil," Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, said about the results. "They want new leadership to move America in a dramatically different direction."

Pope called on the incoming House leadership to emphasize energy security, a clean environment, reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and job creation.

"Voters elected a greener Congress and several greener governors," said Cathy Duvall, the Sierra Club´s political director. "Now America can move forward in a new direction."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi appears poised to become the first woman speaker of the House. Many of her views closely parallel those of environmental activists.

During the campaign, she and the House Democratic leadership championed issues including the production of alternate fuels, including biofuels; geothermal energy; clean coal, fuel cell, solar, wind, hybrid and flex fuel vehicle technology; energy efficiency and conservation incentives.

Pelosi also has endorsed reducing greenhouse gas emissions through the development of new technology and free market policies.

Her proposals include requiring automakers to increase the percentage of flex-fuel vehicles they make.

The Sierra Club actively campaigned for many candidates it believed would advocate positions more closely aligned with the environmental movement and against some incumbents with opposing views.

One of the most significant upsets took place in California, where Democrat Jerry McNerney unseated Rep. Richard Pombo, a Republican who chaired the House Resources Committee. "It has been clear to us for a long time that Richard Pombo´s views were way too extreme and his relationships to special interests way too cozy to honestly serve the public on issues like clean air, clean water, and protecting wildlands," Pope said. "We are pleased to see that the voters in the 11th district agreed with us."

Environmentalists had criticized Pombo´s positions on allowing mining, drilling and logging on federally owned land.

Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., a member of the Senate environment committee and chairman of a subcommittee on fisheries, wildlife and water, also was voted out of office. He was defeated by Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., a member of the Senate environment committee, will be returning next year despite having lost the party´s primary. Lieberman ran as an independent and defeated both the Democrat and Republican challengers.

Meanwhile, in California, voters rejected Proposition 87, which would have established a $4 billion program to fund alternative energy research. The money would have been raised by imposing a tax of between 1.5 percent and 6 percent on producers of oil extracted in California. It also would have prohibited producers from passing the tax on to consumers.

While generating $225 million to $485 million annually for alternative fuels, a state analysis said the measure would have reduced state revenues from oil production on state lands by about $15 million annually. It also would have reduced state corporate taxes paid by oil producers by as much as $10 million annually and local property tax receipts by a few million dollars annually, and it could have potentially reduced fuel-related excise and sales taxes.