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Bush assailed for last-minute rules

George W Bush is drawing a significant amount of criticism in his last weeks as United States president as he presides over a steady stream of environmentally unfriendly regulations, Reuters reported. Any regulations passed into law now will be in place when president-elect Barack Obama takes office on January 20. The new administration would then have a considerable amount of difficulty undoing these regulations.

"While the first 100 days of the Bush administration initiated perhaps the worst period of environmental deregulation in American history, the last 100 days of a Bush presidency could be even worse," the staff of the House of Representatives global warming committee wrote just before the US November 4 election.

 

Bush's team recently passed a long list of environmental last-minute or “midnight” regulations covering global warming, air pollution, endangered species and coal mining. Bush’s environmental opponents say that these final rules unquestionably favour industry over human health and welfare.

 

During his two terms as president, Bush has rejected any mandatory, economy-wide limits on carbon dioxide (CO2) including refusing to join the Kyoto Protocol, the  international treaty to fight climate change. The Bush administration is represented at the current United Nations climate meeting in Poznan, Poland, the half-way point in negotiations towards a new global climate agreement.  However, most believe with much of the attention focused on the future Obama administration, the prospects for solid progress are small.

 

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