Rick Boucher Booted From Committee Chair

Old Feckless Rick got "bumped" and it is not a good thing.

Rep. Rick Boucher, D-11th, will no longer chair the environmental subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in the new Congress.
The committee announced Thursday Boucher will head the Communications, Technology and Internet subcommittee, bumped from his environmental post by Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., who has more seniority than Boucher, and had chaired the technology subcommittee.
Boucher had wanted to stay in charge of the environmental panel, which will play a leading role in the energy policy debate. But he said, as a senior committee member, he will still have a voice on energy matters.
"I will be deeply involved in the debate and in fashioning the debate one way or another," Boucher said in an interview before the new committee assignments were announced.
The committee already shuffled its top slots, moving aside chairman John Dingell of Michigan, in favor of California's Rep. Henry Waxman, considered to be a closer ally of environmental groups.
"The tone will be different," Boucher said. "The debates will start from a different place on the spectrum."
Boucher has a long history on telecommunications issues, having authored the 1992 law that allowed commercial traffic on the Internet. Expanding broadband lines and overseeing the digital television transition will top Boucher's workload in the new Congress. Link

Boucher was a voice for coal, albeit a weak voice. His seat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee was very important to the coal industry. I am not liking what I am seeing. I expect the Obama congress will destroy the coal mining business. Any Bets?

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