In a story in the Contra Costa Times, two people separately coin the term "Pombo-ize" to refer to that California Republican congressman's unsuccessful effort last fall to auction off our public lands. Sen. Chafee of Rhode Island and Michael Bean of Environmental Defense both use the term as they discuss possible changes to existing environmental laws -- to mean that Pombo's proposal got so much negative attention that any related proposal would be tainted by association.
The controversial proposal that was 'Pombo-ized' last fall would have allowed developers and anyone else to buy some 350 million acres of taxpayer-owned land in 12 Western states at prices as low as $1,000 an acre. Dozens of newspapers around the country editorialized against the land grab. Read EWG's analysis of the Pombo proposal and see what land in and near national parks and natural gems was threatened: https://www.ewg.org/reports/dirtcheap/ .
