Obama Halts Bush's Last-Minute Regulations

Honoring the first-day tradition of all American presidents since Ronald Reagan, President Obama put a halt to all of the last-minute regulations that the Bush administration attempted to put into place before the transition.

Any work by federal regulators that was unfinished by the time Bush ceded power to Obama, according to a Washington Post article, was put on hold so that the new administration could review each one.

According to a Scientific American blog post, two of Bush's eleventh hour moves include a rule that permits federal regulators to ignore the possible carbon dioxide emissions of new coal-fired plants when reviewing applications to construct them and the delisting of the gray wolf from protection under the Endangered Species Act.

One hundred "final rules" were ordered by Bush since Obama won the election in November.

GET INVOLVED

• Sign a petition supporting Al Gore's request to Congress for a moratorium on coal-fired power plants
• Sign a Sierra Club petition opposing the US Fish and Wildlife Service delisting of the gray wolf from the Endangered Species List
  

RELATED POSTS

• The Politics of Protecting Species (December 17, 2008)
• Bush's Last Deregulatory Gasp (November 11, 2008)
  
• Darker Days for Gray Wolves? (November 1, 2008)
• $700 Billion Bailout Bill Includes Tax Breaks for Dirty Fuel (October 5, 2008)
  
• First US Emissions Trading Market Opens (September 28, 2008)
  
• Good News for America's Wolves, Maybe (September 19, 2008)
• Conservationists Call Palin's Wolf Program "Brutal" (September 14, 2008)
• Alaska's Wolf Control Program Under Fire (August 14, 2008)
• Judge Overturns Bush's Decision to Allow Wolf Killings (July 21, 2008)
• Wolves Hunted After Protection Ends (April 21, 2008)

photo: jmtimages