The Washington Post reports A Last Push To Deregulate.
"The White House is working to enact a wide array of federal regulations, many of which would weaken government rules aimed at protecting consumers and the environment, before President Bush leaves office in January.
The new rules would be among the most controversial deregulatory steps of the Bush era and could be difficult for his successor to undo. Some would ease or lift constraints on private industry, including power plants, mines and farms.
Those and other regulations would help clear obstacles to some commercial ocean-fishing activities, ease controls on emissions of pollutants that contribute to global warming, relax drinking-water standards and lift a key restriction on mountaintop coal mining.
Once such rules take effect, they typically can be undone only through a laborious new regulatory proceeding, including lengthy periods of public comment, drafting and mandated reanalysis."
It's not uncommon for presidents to push through many of these before leaving office. Apparently Clinton did this too, but his administration procrastinated and many didn't get done in time or were still in process. Bush's first day, many of Clinton's proposals were stopped. So Bush is not making the same mistaking and is trying to get stuff through by tomorrow. There are 60 and 30 day congressional review periods for some of these so Nov 20th and Dec 20th are some deadlines on them.
I find the following unbelievable...
"One rule, being pursued over some opposition within the Environmental Protection Agency, would allow current emissions at a power plant to match the highest levels produced by that plant, overturning a rule that more strictly limits such emission increases. According to the EPA's estimate, it would allow millions of tons of additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually, worsening global warming. A related regulation would ease limits on emissions from coal-fired power plants near national parks. A third rule would allow increased emissions from oil refineries, chemical factories and other industrial plants with complex manufacturing operations."
Let's just make sure we kill the planet before we get out of office.
2 comments:
Another difference between Bush's last-minute rule changes and the changes put in place at the end of Clinton's 2nd term is that most of the Clinton rule changes were well-supported by appropriate studies. That's why some of them weren't fully implemented by Dumbya's inauguration, the Clinton bureaucrats were trying to do it right. The reports I've heard describe many of Bush's rule changes as poorly studied or supported by only the flimsiest of justification. While it's a fitting footnote to his administration, it's offensive in the extreme and it's too bad he'll never be punished for it.
One has to wonder what his motivation is in pushing such changes to responsible and reasonable environmental regulations. To wish to further destroy the air and water and ecological balance that we all rely upon (rich and poor, Republican and Democrat) only serves to put, beyond debate, the utter disregard this administration continues to demonstrate, even in its (thankfully) last days, for the citizens of this nation.
He obviously, either is too stupid to understand the implications of his actions, or truly, and saddest of all, doesn't care.
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