N.M. senator stands guard in debate over Interior, EPA riders

In late January, Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) took to the Senate floor to defend a tiny, grayish-brown grouse. He was opposing a GOP amendment to a bill approving the Keystone XL pipeline that would have overturned the Fish and Wildlife Service's decision last May to list the lesser prairie chicken as a "threatened" species. While the amendment by Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) may have been popular in Udall's home state -- where oil and gas companies and four counties had recently sued to overturn FWS's decision -- Udall criticized Moran's amendment as a "top-down political approach." "Listing and delisting of the species by Congress goes against the intent of the law," Udall said, referring to the Endangered Species Act, "which requires the government to make these decisions based on science, not politics." To environmentalists, Udall's help in defeating the amendment -- it died 54-44, failing to garner a required 60 votes -- was a sign that he'll stand strong against future GOP attempts to saddle appropriations bills with environmental policy riders seeking to undo or undermine President Obama's energy and natural resources agenda. As the new ranking member of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, New Mexico's Tom Udall is the Democrats' first line of defense against expected bids to roll back U.S. EPA clean air and water regulations and the Interior Department's protection of lands and wildlife.  Udall, who was elected to a second term in November, said he has a "good working relationship" with Interior-EPA panel Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), though he said he's worried that GOP leaders have pledged to topple Obama's environmental agenda...more

A long, but interesting article by E&E's Phil Taylor, which says Little Tommy YouDull is now the big man on the envirocampus and shows how one man from NM can bring absolute harm to the entire nation.