Super Eco

Photo credit: wvubush, stock.xchng

President Barack Obama has put the brakes on all new and pending rules hustled through by former President George Bush. In a memo from Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Obama directed that “…no proposed or final regulation should be sent to the Office of Federal Register for publication unless and until it has been reviewed and approved by a department or agency head appointed or designated by the President after noon on Jan. 20, 2009.”

Grey wolves across America are howling in relief at the decisive move, which may delay or prevent their being removed from endangered species lists in more than a dozen states. We hopped over to ProPublica's handy list of Bush's midnight regulations to see what else was now up for closer examination. Bush's hit-and-run maneuvers (many of them last minute) weakened or outright attacked a number of environmental and energy issues, including changes to:

• Requirements and fees for Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests from the U.S. Department of Energy
• Rules for snowmobile use in national parks
• New fuel economy rules for automotive manufacturers
• Rules for air pollution emissions and farm factory animal waste discharge into waterways
• Eligibility of hazardous waste to be used as fuel; some power plants possibly exempted from installing pollution controls
• Restrictions for power plants near national parks and wilderness areas
• Habitat planning for bighorn sheep; construction project rules related to protected species
• Uranium mining permits near the Grand Canyon; more logging opened in Oregon
• Rules on genetically engineered plants, milk and meat

Unfortunately, some of the Bush administration's last-minute zingers successfully skidded under the wire to take effect before inauguration day. We'll be following this story, to see what President Obama makes with the debris left in Bush's wake.