In our press release on the election results, CEI points out that most of the Republicans who lost their House seats had embraced environmental causes, to the extent of even getting endorsements from the League of Conservation Voters. Yet no money or help came with those endorsements, surprise, surprise. Some further comments from my colleague Myron Ebell:
“Rep. Richard Pombo’s defeat was clearly the biggest loss for those of us who support protecting property rights, reforming the Endangered Species Act, and lowering energy prices by increasing domestic energy production,” Ebell continued.
“Although the environmental and energy agenda will now be set by Democrats in the House, the ideological makeup of the House and the Senate on these issues has not changed as much as the magnitude of Republican losses would suggest,” said Ebell. “Green Republicans were replaced by green Democrats, while conservative Republicans were mostly replaced by moderate Democrats,” Ebell said. “This means, most notably, that the prospects for enacting global warming legislation in the next Congress have not been significantly increased.”
John Berthoud of the National Taxpayers’ Union has some further comments here.