Environmental Pollution Agency Update: Lame Duck Still Bites

The WaPo's lead article on Halloween, A Last Push To Deregulate, reported that BushCo is racing the calendar to undermine as many government regulations as possible, including those applying to the environment. Apparently not content simply to refuse to do their job under court order,

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.

One environmental rule, apparently opposed even within the ineffectual EPA,

would allow current emissions at a power plant to match the highest levels produced by that plant, overturning a rule that more strictly limits such emission increases. According to the EPA's estimate, it would allow millions of tons of additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually, worsening global warming.

George Washington University constitutional law scholar Jonathan Turley points out that this last-minute rule-making, while technically legal, does "violate a core tradition in American politics."

This story was picked up today by Reuters (via AOL News): Bush Team Rushes Environmental Rules. Other comments are provided by:

• NYTi's Green Inc. blog, Bush’s Last-Minute Rule Making Has Environmental Implications
• ABC News, The Bush Administration's Midnight Regulations
• TIME, Offsetting Bush's Green Legacy: Advice for No. 44
• Federal Times, Midnight rule-making bonanza
• Comedy Central's Indecision 2008, George Bush Apparently Still President, Still Destroying the World