TWO MINUTE DRILL….At the end of every administration, there’s a rush to put in place new regulations and executive orders before the clock runs out. The famously disorderly Clinton administration did this in 2000, but was so late with many of their new regs that they hadn’t taken legal effect by January 20th. Jeffrey Smith tells the tale of the tape:
Clinton’s appointees wound up paying a heavy price for procrastination. Bush’s team was able to withdraw 254 regulations that covered such matters as drug and airline safety, immigration and indoor air pollutants. After further review, many of the proposals were modified to reflect Republican policy ideals or scrapped altogether.
Needless to say, the Bushies don’t want the same thing to happen to their regulations, so they’re making sure to finish them up quickly and get them issued so they take effect before the next administration moves in to the West Wing. You will be unsurprised to learn that these new regs are pretty much all designed to screw consumers and the environment:
The new rules would…lift constraints on private industry, including power plants, mines and farms…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.
….A rule put forward by the National Marine Fisheries Service and now under final review by the OMB would lift a requirement that environmental impact statements be prepared for certain fisheries-management decisions and would give review authority to regional councils dominated by commercial and recreational fishing interests.
….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.
Just a little something extra to remember the Bush administration by. Especially if you live near a power plant, oil refinery, or chemical factory. And double especially if you love the smell of napalm in the morning.
