We Still All Live In Richard Pombo's District

In 2006, one of the rallying cries of the liberal blogosphere was to dump Richard Pombo (R-CA), then the chair of the House Natural Resources committee. He had a number of crackpot anti-environmental ideas, not the least of which was to eliminate independent review of development projects to determine whether they would harm endangered species. It was a broadside against the Endangered Species Act, and it was one of the proposals that led a host of enviro groups and a lot of talent in the netroots to work for Jerry McNerney's ouster of Pombo, which was successful.

Two years later, we have a craptacular Congressman in McNerney, and the President is picking up where Pombo left off:

The Bush administration yesterday proposed a regulatory overhaul of the Endangered Species Act to allow federal agencies to decide whether protected species would be imperiled by agency projects, eliminating the independent scientific reviews that have been required for more than three decades.

The new rules, which will be subject to a 30-day per comment period, would use administrative powers to make broad changes in the law that Congress has resisted for years. Under current law, agencies must subject any plans that potentially affect endangered animals and plants to an independent review by the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service. Under the proposed new rules, dam and highway construction and other federal projects could proceed without delay if the agency in charge decides they would not harm vulnerable species.

This is one of those end-of-the-session goodies that we all expected Bush to hand out to his friends on the way out the door. He's been making the world safe for corporations and developers by eliminating regulatory restrictions and making their tax bills go poof (TWO-THIRDS of all corporations paid no federal taxes between 1998 and 2005 - that of course includes a couple Clinton years, so it's a bipartisan fealty to the corporate machine). In fact, it's not even the first time the Administration has tried to waive the Endangered Species Act - Michael Chertoff did it when pushing through construction permits for the fence on the Mexican border.

Price of liberty, eternal vigilance, etc. McNerney's election didn't cure everything and Bush's departure won't either. It's a never-ending battle.