It’s Not Over Until It’s Over

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George Bush may have only a few days left in office, but his throw-the-environment-under-the-bus administration is still hard at work trying to create new facts that could have long-term consequences. Although Obama’s environmental team theoretically can review many of these changes, the arcane process of governmental rule making could make at least some of them almost impossible to alter.

Some of the more dangerous changes:

• Just before Christmas, the Environmental Protection Agency ruled that government officials couldn’t consider greenhouse gas output when considering applications by utilities seeking to build new coal-fired plants. This seems intended to allow last minute approvals of new power plants in South Carolina, Michigan, Utah and elsewhere; none of these plants would employ so-called “clean coal” technology that is not yet commercially available.

• The EPA also issued a new regulation to allow mountaintop mining to affect rivers and streams as long as the mining company promises to eventually repair any damage. Since mountaintop mining is a process whereby the tops of mountains are scooped off and dumped into adjacent valleys, it’s hard to imagine that after-the-fact remedial action would be very effective. The policy changed by the EPA restricted the process if it affected water quality.

• On the last day of 2008, the Bush administration finalized a huge giveaway of 2.6 million acres of Oregon public forestland to the timber industry. The Western Oregon Plan Revisions (PDF) rezoned thousands of acres of Oregon forest managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management to make them available for industrial logging, with potentially disastrous environmental consequences.

• The EPA also finalized a decision to allow perchlorate , a known toxin and a major component of rocket fuel, in drinking water—ignoring expert advice and basing the decision on an abstract model rather than human data.

• In December, the Administration decided that the Clean Water Act only applied to commercially navigable waters, sharply restricting the Act’s reach. This was the capstone of policies that leave career officials “no longer able to ensure the safety and health of the nations’ waters,” according (PDF) to the House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

When Clinton left office eight years ago, he pardoned scoundrels, and his staff stole the “w’s” off the White House computers. Bush’s parting gifts to his successor—and the rest of us—could have far graver consequences.