October 31, 2008 08:41 PM UTC

Bush the frat boy plays one more prank on the American people

• 3 Comments
• by: Danny the Red (hair)

Presidents often rush through changes to administrative rules at the end of their term.  While we have been focusing on the future he’s playing his last prank.

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.

Poisen the water, accelerate the climate crisis, collapse the fisheries, and strip mining?  Yeah Bush.

This is no minor tweaking.

As many as 90 new regulations are in the works, and at least nine of them are considered “economically significant” because they impose costs or promote societal benefits that exceed $100 million annually. They include new rules governing employees who take family- and medical-related leaves, new standards for preventing or containing oil spills, and a simplified process for settling real estate transactions.

Part of this is that lobbyists are rushing to get pet projects through the adminitrative process because Obama will not be as friendly

The burst of activity has made this a busy period for lobbyists who fear that industry views will hold less sway after the elections. The doors at the New Executive Office Building have been whirling with corporate officials and advisers pleading for relief or, in many cases, for hastened decision making.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…