The 2008 retirement of veteran Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM), a key figure in shaping energy policy over the years, will be a major loss to the oil and natural gas industries.

Domenci, who will depart the Senate at the end of his sixth term, was the chief architect of the omnibus Energy Policy Act of 2005, which overhauled U.S. energy policy for the first time in 13 years (see Daily GPI, Aug.1, 2005). He also helped to shepherd through legislation in 2006 that provides access to the natural gas-rich Lease Sale 181 area of the eastern Gulf of Mexico (see Daily GPI, Dec. 21, 2006).

The 75-year-old senator has been chairman or the ranking Republican on the Senate Energy Natural Resources Committee for the past five years, putting his imprint on major pieces of legislation affecting energy markets.

Domenici’s decision to resign is due in large part to health-related problems. The senator has a progressive disease that can cause dysfunction in parts of the brain important for organization, decision-making and control of mood and behavior, according to a draft of a speech that Domenici was to give in New Mexico, which the Associated Press obtained.

Domenici told Senate colleagues Wednesday that he has frontotemporal lobar degeneration, or FTLD, a type of dementia, the AP reported. This is a slow deterioration of affected sections of the brain, the front and lower sides — areas that control such things as language and behavior. Unlike Alzheimer’s disease, memory often is not significantly impaired until late stages of FTLD. There is no cure.

Some believe a secondary reason for his resignation is an ongoing Senate ethics inquiry into whether he pressured then-U.S. Attorney David Iglesias before the November 2006 election about a federal corruption case involving a former state lawmaker in New Mexico. Iglesias was one of several federal prosecutors who was fired by the Bush administration.

Domenici, who is known as “St. Pete” in his home state, is one of four Senate Republicans who will not seek reelection in late 2008, which will make it even more difficult for the party to recapture control of the Senate.

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