Bush's Final F.U. - Rolling Stone Reviews How The Chimp Is Gutting Regulation In All Areas

[hatrack]

EDIT

Bush is also implementing other environmental rules that will cater to the interests of many of his biggest benefactors:

BIG COAL In early December, the administration finalized a rule that allows the industry to dump waste from mountaintop mining into neighboring streams and valleys, a practice opposed by the governors of both Tennessee and Kentucky. "This makes it legal to use the most harmful coal-mining technology available," says Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. A separate rule also relaxes air-pollution standards near national parks, allowing Big Coal to build plants next to some of America's most spectacular vistas — even though nine of 10 EPA regional administrators dissented from the rule or criticized it in writing. "They're willing to sacrifice the laws that protect our national parks in order to build as many new coal plants as possible," says Mark Wenzler, director of clean-air programs for the National Parks Conservation Association. "This is the last gasp of Bush and Cheney's disastrous policy, and they've proven there's no line they won't cross."

BIG OIL In a rule that becomes effective just three days before Obama takes office, the administration has opened up nearly 2 million acres of mountainous lands in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming for the mining of oil shale — an energy-intensive process that also drains precious water resources. "The administration has admitted that it has no idea how much of Colorado's water supply would be required to develop oil shale, no idea where the power would come from and no idea whether the technology is even viable," says Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado. What's more, Bush is slashing the royalties that Big Oil pays for oil-shale mining from 12.5 percent to five percent. "A pittance," says Salazar.

BIG AGRICULTURE Factory farms are getting two major Christmas presents from Bush this year. Circumventing the Clean Water Act, the administration has approved last-minute regulations that will allow animal waste from factory farms to seep, unmonitored, into America's waterways. The regulation leaves it up to the farms themselves to decide whether their pollution is dangerous enough to require them to apply for a permit. "It's the fox guarding the henhouse — all too literally," says Pope. The water rule goes into effect December 22nd, and a related rule in the works would exempt factory farms from reporting air pollution from animal waste.

BIG CHEMICAL In October, two weeks after consulting with industry lobbyists, the White House exempted more than 100 major polluters from monitoring their emissions of lead, a deadly neurotoxin. Seemingly hellbent on a more toxic future, the administration will also allow industry to treat 3 billion pounds of hazardous waste as "recycling" each year, and to burn another 200 million pounds of hazardous waste reclassified as "fuel," increasing cancer-causing air pollution. The rule change is a reward to unrepentant polluters: Nearly 90 percent of the factories that will be permitted to burn toxic waste have already been cited for violating existing environmental protections.

EDIT

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/24991066/bushs_final_fu

[merh]

1. forgive my ignorance

but doesn't Obama just have to enter orders reversing GWB's crap?

Yes, that will take time - but isn't this correctable?

[hatrack]

2. Sadly, it's not that simple.

That's why there was this big rush to get changes enacted 60 days before Obama is sworn in. If federal regulations are 60+ days in place, you have to go back and re-write the law, which means starting the entire legislative process over again.

It's somewhat more complicated than this brief explanation would show, and the incoming team is already working on what they think will be the legal basis to overturn much of this. However, the net effect is to lash the wheel on a given course, no matter what the avowed goals of the next administration.

In short, it really is just another way for Bush to try and keep paying off his buddies - and, of course, to keep on fucking us and the environment.

[ellenfl]

3. but it's fewer than 60 days until obama . . . eom

[hatrack]

5. But many of these regulatory rulings were already promulgated (whatever the word is) . . .

. . . the week before Thanksgiving.

[CoffeeCat]

4. What a fool Bush is...

If the man wants to spend hours and days, knitting a giant evil afghan from hell---Obama will just
take it out to the wood chipper and decimate it. In about ten seconds.

What a fool Bush is.

[Mist]

6. Another who needs her ignorance forgiven here. Where is Congress in this? Don't

regulations for various agencies go through the congress?

[annabanana]

7. He is dusgusting on so many levels, this guy...

He is out to kill us because it is cheaper than keeping us alive.