Pombo Pounded for offshore proposal

You'd think that any politician in California would have the smarts to stay away from suggesting offshore drilling...but apparently Congressman Richard Pombo didn't get the memo:

Proposals to lift the decades-old national ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling are yielding a gusher of political heat for U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy.

Environmentalists have unleashed a media campaign painting Pombo as part of a conspiracy to overturn the drilling ban.

Pombo himself isn’t saying what his stand is on offshore drilling or whether he is part of the efforts to lift the ban. Staff members for Pombo’s House Resources Committee insist that neither they nor the chairman is behind the recent push.

Still, the proposal for lifting the ban that Pombo’s staff originally developed several years ago was showcased at an American Gas Association conference in March and in state legislation the governor of Virginia vetoed last month.