Bush's Midnight Regulations
President Bush may have hospitably welcomed his successor and his wife into the White House while promising a "transition of the highest order," but despite voters' overwhelming rejection of Republican ideology, his administration has been using its waning days in power to codify a host of harmful new pro-industry, anti-environmental rules and regulations.
As R. Jeffrey Smith and Juliet Eilperin wrote recently in the Washington Post, "In a burst of activity meant to leave a lasting stamp on the federal government, the Bush White House in the past month has approved 61 new regulations on environmental, security, social and commercial matters that by its own estimate will have an economic impact exceeding $1.9 billion annually."
These so-called "midnight regulations" are free of Congressional oversight and will be completely legal once Bush signs off on them. They'll allow factories to pollute more, let food manufacturers hide their toxins more easily, gives states the chance to restrict women's access to abortion services and force municipalities to cut off aid to needy families in the middle of a recession.
On the environmental front, the latest rules show that the Bush administration is trying to lend a final assist to its crony industries that could be affected by looming pollution controls or wilderness-protection laws. A rule approved by the White House three days after the presidential election, for example, eased constraints on environmentally damaging oil shale development throughout the West, despite objections from Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter and a majority of the state's congressional delegation.
