Obama Uses Executive Power to Reverse Bush Enviro Policies

Erin Kelly Republic Washington Bureau WASHINGTON - For eight years environmentalists cried foul as President George W. Bush used his executive power to weaken clean-air & clean-water regulations open public lands to increased oil and gas drilling and block action to fight climate change.  Now President Barack Obama is exercising that same authority to reverse course and business groups are the ones yelling.   Business groups say the Obama administrations stronger environmental protections could be bad news for the economy by imposing costly regulations on industry. The National Association of Manufacturers the American Petroleum Institute and other industry groups have filed a court challenge to try to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from going ahead with regulations to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. The EPA is moving forward with an agenda that will put additional burdens on manufacturers cost jobs and drive up theprice of energy said NAM spokesman Keith McCoy. By forcing manufacturers to meet unrealistic goals and placing burdensome costs on them the EPA is hurting Americas competitiveness. Obamas litany of pro-environment actions was interrupted on March 31 when the president in a rare split with conservation groups opened to offshore oil drilling areas of the East Coast from Delaware to Florida the Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska. But he also disappointed industry groups and congressional Republicans by blocking any drilling along the West Coast the Northeast and Alaskas environmentally sensitive Bristol Bay. Despite their anger at the oil-drilling announcement environmentalists were praising Obama again just a day later as the EPA finalized a rule reducing greenhouse-gas emissions for cars and some trucks by 30 percent and requiring new vehicles to average 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016. Under the Bush administration it was good news for polluters bad news for the public said Anna Aurilio director of the Washington D.C. office of Environment America a coalition of state-based environmental advocacy organizations. Under the Obama administration it is good news for people who breathe the air drink the water and want Americas treasures preserved for future generations. A regulation nation Environmentalists say that unchecked climate change is a much greater threat to the U.S. economy than regulation because of the potentially devastating coastal flooding Midwest droughts and other disasters it could cause. And the Obama administration touts its efforts to boost renewable energy and wean America off foreign oil as a way to create more U.S. jobs. While denouncing what he called Obamas move toward a regulation nation conservative energy analyst Myron Ebell acknowledged that the administration is taking some business concerns into account. In drawing up the details of its climate-change plan the EPA appears to be targeting only the largest factories and power plants to not burden smaller businesses with more costs. The agency also announced this month that it will give those businesses until January 2011 to begin complying with the new regulations. The administration wants to expand the regulatory state but they are rational enough to understand that going after everybody would create a catastrophe said Ebell director of energy and global-warming policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Executive power One thing both sides agree on is that Obama and Bush used presidential power on environmental issues in part because they saw Congress as unwilling or unable to act. Case in point:  The Democratic Congress has made global-warming legislation a top priority but the bill has stalled in the Senate after passing last year in the House. Not content to wait the Obama administration moved ahead on its own. On the flip side Bush removed some rivers streams and wetlands from the protection of the Clean Water Act after a Supreme Court decision said that the law applied only to navigable waters. Democrats protested the move but Congress failed to pass any legislation clarifying its intent. Congress has the ultimate power over federal lands but what they have done in many cases is delegate that authority to the executive branch said Dave Alberswerth of the Wilderness Society. Even when they do pass a bill members of Congress give too much power to executive-branch officials to decide how to carry it out Ebell said. The heart of all these problems is that Congress has given away its own authority to regulators many of whom are out of control he said. But while presidents are eager to act their triumphs are often fleeting. In the final months of his administration Bush pushed regulations to repeal a 25-year ban on loaded guns in national parks open 2 million acres of public lands in the West to oil-shale development exempt factory farms from key provisions of the Clean Water &  Clean Air acts allow mountaintop mining near streams and make it easier to dump hazardous waste into the recycling system. The Obama administration already has halted the implementation of most of those rules and declared its intent to revise or scrap others according to OMB Watch a non-profit group that tracks executive-branch rulemaking. Sea change at the EPA There has been a sea change in the Environmental Protection Agencys approach to their job from the Bush to the Obama administration said Rick Melberth director of federal regulatory policy at OMB Watch. They now act like theyre a real regulatory agency instead of being there to make things easier for the industries theyre supposed to regulate. But all that could change again when Obama leaves office and a new president moves into the White House. Thats why we keep lobbying Congress to pass environmental-protection laws Aurilio said. What the Obama administration is doing is great. But it can be undone much easier than a law. Sampling of Obama administrations environmental actions:

1. Proposed a final rule to reduce global-warming pollution from new vehicles by 30 percent and achieve an average fuel economy of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016.
2. Proposed tightening clean-air standards to reduce what is considered an acceptable level of smog.
3. Declared that global-warming emissions pose a threat to human health clearing the way for regulation under the Clean Air Act of new motor vehicles and of power plants and factories that generate greenhouse gases when they burn coal oil or gas.
4. Announced new guidance for mining permits in an effort to stop coal-mining companies from harming water quality by dumping waste from mountaintop mines into streams.
5. Barred the filing of new uranium mining claims on nearly 1 million acres near the Grand Canyon. The ban will last for at least two years while the administration studies whether the land should be protected permanently.
6. Announced plans to strengthen drinking-water regulations to reduce contaminants that can cause cancer.
7. Canceled oil and gas leases on about 130000 acres of land in southeastern Utah near pristine areas such as Arches National Park and Dinosaur National Monument.
8. Withdrew leases the Bush administration had offered for the extraction of oil from shale on federal land in the West. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is developing a new plan that will charge higher royalty rates to oil companies.
9. Announced its intent to scrap a Bush administration rule that would allow aging power plants and factories to expand without having to install modern clean-air equipment.
10. Overturned a last-minute rule change by the Bush administration that would have exempted federal agencies from having to consult with federal wildlife experts before taking action that could harm endangered species.