Bush Wants Environmental Changes

U.S. President George W. Bush is sprinting toward the end of his administration pushing through environmental policy changes before he leaves office.

His initiatives include getting wolves off the Endangered Species List, allowing power plants to operate near national parks, loosening regulations for factory farm waste or making it easier for mountaintop coal-mining operations.

Environmentalists are pushing for a mandatory program to cut climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions- not one of Bush’s favored moves.

Free-market organizations have gotten together with conservation groups to push through a moratorium on last-minute rules proposed by the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency.

"The Bush administration has had eight years in office and has issued more regulations than any administration in history," said Eli Lehrer of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

"At this point, in the current economic climate, it would be especially harmful to push through ill-considered regulations in the final days of the administration."

John Kostyack of the National Wildlife Federation is calling for a ban on these last-minute rules.

He said citizens are left out of the process, allowing changes in U.S. law that the public opposes, like rolling back protections under the Endangered Species Act.

The Bush administration wants the changes in place by the time he leaves office on January 20.

This may not be the top priority for a new president, said Matt Madia of OMB Watch, which monitors the White House Office of Management and Budget, through which these proposed regulations must pass.

"This is typical," Madia said of the administration’s welter of eleventh-hour rules. "It’s a natural reaction to knowing that you’re almost out of power."

Business is likely to most benefit if Bush’s rules on the environment become effective, Madia said.

"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," Madia said.

Opposition groups say they’re amazed at just how fast these environmental measures are making it through the process.

One Interior Department rule that would erode protections for endangered species in favor of mining interests drew more than 300,000 comments from the public, which officials said they planned to review in a week, a pace that Madia called "pretty ludicrous."

White House spokesman Tony Fratto denied the Bush team was cramming these regulations through at an alarming rate.

Fratto discounted reports "that we’re trying to weaken regulations that have a business interest," telling White House reporters last week the goal was to avoid the flood of last-minute rules left over from Clinton’s presidency.

Environmentalists support at least one Bush administration environmental proposal that would create the world’s largest marine wildlife sanctuary in the Pacific Ocean.

That measure could go into effect January 20.