| White House Troglodytes Make a Stand |
|
|
| Written by Leslie Berliant | |
| Friday, 28 November 2008 | |
|
The Bush Administration will not go quietly when it comes to trying to prevent climate change regulation. Nothing surprising there given the administration’s deep industry ties. To be fair, all administrations pass midnight regulations in an attempt to shape - or hamper - future policy. What is new in this case are the numbers of such attempts and the openness with which they are doing it. The administration has recently pushed through a flurry of last minute deregulation, including some which seriously compromise the integrity of the Endangered Species Act and the protection of our national parks. The changes to the Endangered Species Act "would essentially allow the government to approve big development projects on federal lands without adequately considering the effects on endangered species." The Bush folks are also putting their energy into last minute rallying of the troops to fight meaningful action on greenhouse gas emissions. The Washington Post reported that last week, the White House sent an email to a group of U.S. mayors asking them to oppose the EPA's draft proposal for greenhouse gas regulations. That's right, the administration is lobbying against the recommendations of its own agency. Below is that e-mail, courtesy of the Wonk Room, which was sent by Jeremy J. Broggi, Associate Director of Intergovernmental Affairs: From: White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs As WaPo puts it, "as the Bush administration prepares to issue its ruling on whether to limit greenhouse gases, it's sending out a message to some of its allies: Tell us how much you don't want us to regulate emissions linked to global warming." In an equally insidious move, the administration has also converted a number of political appointee positions in the Interior Department (and others) into career employees that can't be fired under civil service regulations. As the Denver Post notes, this is a way for the outgoing administration to “embed some of its own appointees into the government structure. Again, this process, called 'burrowing', is not new in the Bush administration, but what is new is the level to which it is being done. More than 140 such conversions took place during the administrations first term. Twenty more so far this round, and six of those are deputies at the Department of the Interior with distinctly Bush-like agendas and a good bit of controversy surrounding them. For comparison, the Clinton administration made 47 such conversions in total. How much any of this will stand in the way of the incoming administration’s environmental agenda remains to be seen, but it is clear that the Obama administration will have their work cut out for them just in figuring out what has been done and how to undo it. All of this in addition to overcoming eight years of inaction on climate change and brazen actions that put industry above the health of the environment.
Set as favorite
Bookmark
Email This
Hits: 1091 Comments (3)
  written by Landseer, December 04, 2008
"From the moment you first set foot in the diverse lands of Azeroth, World of Warcraft captivates with its vast, seamless, and visually cohesive world. http://www.questmonk.com Players are placed in charge of their own destinies virtually immediately--there's no http://www.psii.orgtutorial introduction to the game, whose elegantly desed interface is easy to decipher and simple to use.
 written by runescapegoods, December 23, 2008
Cheap & Safe & Fast & Reliable Runescape Gold,Runescape Item,Runescape Accounts , All in runescapegoods.com. Instant Delivery, 24/7 Service.
Write comment
|
|
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
Yeah, OK, we can be the change that we want to see in the world. But unless powerful people in powerful positions want to be that change as well, nothing's going to change.
So now, finally, there's a place where you can go for news and analysis of politics from an environmental perspective.
Subscribe to this comment's feed
