Bush Pushes for 11th Hour Anti-Green Rules
While a new day may be dawning in American politics with the election of President Barack Obama, greens will not soon forget the past eight years, especially as the Bush administration tries to push through several anti-environmental initiatives during its final days in office.
According to the New Scientist, some of the last minute rule changes include "getting wolves off the Endangered Species List, allowing power plants to operate near national parks, loosening regulations for factory farm waste and making it easier for mountaintop coal-mining operations." And once any of these rule changes become law, it may be hard to undo them, and a low priority for an Obama administration with so many fires to put out.
Matt Madia of the non-profit OMB Watch, which monitors the federal Office of Management and Budget, told reporters that industry will be the big winner if these eleventh hour rule changes become law. "Whether it’s the electricity industry or the mining industry or the agriculture industry, this is going to remove government restrictions on their activity and in turn they’re going to be allowed to pollute more and that ends up harming the public," he says.
Source: New Scientist