Obama blocks some of Bush's last-minute environmental decisions

January 22, 2009

Jim Tankersley, Los Angeles Times
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Excerpts:

But he did not stop several other controversial, late-term environmental regulations issued by the Bush administration -- at least not yet.

The list of Bush-era environmental rules that survived includes a major tweak to the Endangered Species Act, a first step in opening Western lands to oil shale development, leases for oil and gas drilling near some national parks, and the start of a process to allow new oil rigs off the Atlantic, Gulf, Alaska and California coasts.

Obama still holds several options for changing or reversing those decisions. All carry at least some degree of difficulty -- an apparent victory for an outgoing administration that explicitly tried to finish its rule-making early enough to tie Obama's hands.