A Bush regulation? Scratch that, says Obama. - February 11, 2009
The Obama administration continues its rollback – or at least reconsideration – of environmental policies from the Bush days.
On Tuesday, Interior secretary Ken Salazar announced that the agency would spend another 180 days accepting public comments on a Bush-instigated rule that would dramatically expand oil and gas exploration off the nation’s coasts (Washington Post). The extension likely signals that the rule will eventually get scrapped altogether: "In my view, it was a headlong rush of the worst kind,” Salazar is quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle.
The change is the latest in a series of environmental policy reversals instigated under Obama. Among them:
The Interior Department withdrew freshly-granted leases for oil and gas explorations on public lands in Utah.
The Environmental Protection Agency will reconsider its decision to deny California a waiver that would allow the state to regulate its greenhouse gas emissions.
The EPA will also delay the effective date of, and further study, a ruling that would have eased pollution regulations on new sources of industrial pollution.
And the Justice Department dropped an appeal that would have set up a cap-and-trade system for mercury at power plants, suggesting that the new administration will instead regulate mercury directly.
