Bush kills rules on the way in & blocks them on the way out

From Andy Card to Josh Bolten – Bush sells out public to Corporate interests. Ideology and political power trump science and facts
Today’s NY Times story on Bush administration policy prompts historical reflection – and repeats a deeply disturbing pattern. (Administration Moves to Avert a Late Rules Rush http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/31/washington/31regulate.html?ref=us
Immediately upon assuming office in 2001, the Bush administration imposed a blanket moratorium on all federal regulations then in the pipeline. Hundreds of rules were killed, including protections for clean air, clean water, wild lands, and National Monument designations.
Written at the request of corporate cronies, the infamous “Card memo”, by former auto industry lobbyists and new Bush Chief of Staff Andrew Card, killed scores of environmental and public health protections (see: http://www.ombwatch.org/ombwatcher/ombw20010205.html#lwq
For copy of the Card memo, see: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg/regreview_plan.pdf
The scope of abuse of the public interest by the Bush Administration is staggering – for a fact sheet and Obama campaign position statement on needed reforms see: http://www.scribd.com/doc/191311/Barack-Obama-08-Taking-Back-Our-Government-Back-Final-Fact-Sheet
Today the NY Times reports that Bush new Chief of Staff Josh Bolten has issued what amounts to a moratorium on new regulations on the way out. According to the NY Times:
“The White House has also declared that it will generally not allow agencies to issue any final regulations after Nov. 1, nearly three months before President Bush relinquishes power.“
But this latest stealth maneuver fooled no one:
“John D. Walke, director of the clean air program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, denounced Mr. Bolten’s memorandum as intending to “shut down regulation for the remainder of the Bush administration.”
“Until the bitter end,” Mr. Walke said, “the administration will pursue deregulation on behalf of polluting industries and avoid regulation that would protect public health, welfare and the environment. This memo is a codification of that agenda.”

For as copy of the Bolten memo, see: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/washington/COS%20Memo%205.9.08.pdf
Reforming the Executive Branch, including weeding out pro-industry political appointees (hacks) and undoing all the regulatory damage of the Bush regime will be an enormous challenge of the next administration.
But this type of corruption is not limited to Washington DC beltway.
Right here in NJ, we face similar challenges at the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). It is widely recognized that DEP never recovered from the Whitman Administration’s budget and staff cuts. But very few are aware of the damage to the environment done by pro-industry imposed policy and regulatory changes that still have not been repaired after 8 years of Democratic administrations.
On top of all that, personnel problems caused by pro-industry and/or incompetent middle and upper management block needed environmental progress. DEP as an institution is in real distress.
Worse, we face equivalent threats of a Card/Bolten anti-regulatory policy in multiple places:
1) DEP budget cuts continue – the third consecutive Corzine budget cuts environmental funding;
2) The Corzine Administration’s Fast Track pro-economic development regulatory policy and the pending Permit Extension Act legislation would roll back and freeze environmental protections;
3) Under the bogus pretext of a depressed housing industry, DEP Commissioner Lisa P. Jackson established a “Permit Efficiency Task Force” stacked with industry lobbyists to further roll back protections; (see: http://nj.gov/dep/permittf/
4) Jackson is promoting privatization and more deregulation of the toxic site cleanup program. Yet these same policies are the causes of multiple very visible and controversial botched cleanups – guess we should call it “the surge” on the environment.
When a set of privatization and deregulation policies are not working, just do more of them. That’s working for Bush in Iraq, right?