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.
"They want these rules to continue to have an impact long after they leave office," said Matthew Madia, a regulatory expert at OMB Watch, a nonprofit group critical of what it calls the Bush administration’s penchant for deregulating in areas where industry wants more freedom. He called the coming deluge "a last-minute assault on the public … happening on multiple fronts"…
It still feels like an unexpected icy wind that ignores your jacket and sends shivers up and down your arms. After all that’s happened, easing controls on emissions hardly seems justified in the modern world, and removes all doubts about the constituency of the Bush Administration, if there were any lingering questions. Our challenges are overpopulation, renewable energy sources, global warming, and corrupt business practice. The body of this article list hits to every one of those problems except population control [which the Administration covers elsewhere]. I guess it’s not over until it’s over, but this is a bitter pill to swallow.
I wish there was someone who was respected by the masses who could shame the Bush WH and stop them from signing off on bills deregulating and destroying all the good many people have fought for to make our water, air,and other environmently sound decisons to make us safer. I’d like to see this widely respected person like Warren Buffet spend his dime to go before the American audience and read the list of the deregulations that Bush is signing off on as a going away present to the corporations who don’t care that they are polluting the planet for our future children and grandchildren.