Storms trigger a thirst

San Jose Mercury News: Energized by its attack on those annoying endangered critters that insist on living in the way of new shopping centers, the GOP leadership in the House of Representatives looks ready to steam-roll other environmental impediments as well.
The latest excuse? Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
The hurricanes interrupted supplies of natural gas, oil and gasoline. So House Republicans are talking about ending or modifying the moratorium that has prevented exploration and drilling in federal waters off much of the nation's coastline, including California.
Any new oil wouldn't arrive for years to come, but maybe the pro-drilling lobby is being farsighted. A more robust oil supply would certainly come in handy, given the possibility that continuing to burn fossil fuels will hasten global warming and increase the intensity of future hurricanes.
Clearly, refinery capacity has not kept pace with the demand for gasoline.
House Republicans are proposing to weaken the National Environmental Policy Act to get things approved faster with less study.
Sunset view
The worst of the ideas, scrapping the offshore-drilling moratorium, seems to have run up against the political fact that even ardent Republicans in coastal states -- Florida being a notable example -- have no appetite for improving the sunset view from the beach by adding the silhouettes of oil rigs.
At the center of much of the environmental evisceration is Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., chair of the House Resources Committee.
The House recently passed Pombo's "Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act," a hasty hatchet job that would have been better titled "The Act to Threaten and Endanger Species."
The country will have to count on the more moderate Senate for a rational assessment of how the Endangered Species Act can be made to work better for property owners and for threatened plants and animals.