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| EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy |
"As I've mentioned to you before, we're running — not walking — through the finish line of President Obama's presidency," EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said in a staff memo obtained by the Washington Examiner after Trump was declared the winner of Tuesday's election.The EPA under Bill Clinton pulled similar maneuvers on a number of regulations at the end of his reign. President Bush essentially rolled back the majority of the "last minute" regulations until they were re-evaluated. I remember one in particular, the move to lower the allowable level of arseninc in drinking water from 50 ppb to 10 ppb (they had been considering numbers as low as 2 ppb, which would have put a large number of water systems with natural water greater than that amount at risk. Ultimately the Bush administration accepted the 10 ppb standard.
The agency is currently working on regulations for the oil and gas sector, and is finalizing new annual regulations for the nation's ethanol mandate and renewable fuel blending requirements. The agency is also moving rules related to implementation of its landmark Clean Power Plan for cutting carbon pollution from the nation's coal utilities to combat global warming.
The Clean Power Plan itself is currently under court review after being temporarily stayed by the Supreme Court on Feb. 9 until all judicial review has concluded. Over half the nation is opposing the climate rules along with major industry groups and the coal industry. Trump has made repealing the EPA climate plan a key part of his first 100 days in office.
I think Trump ought to follow a similar plan, a wholescale revocation of regulations and executive actions carried out in the last year of Obama's term, followed by a careful analysis and reinstatement of any determined to be worth the costs.
EPA itself needs to be pruned with a heavy hand.
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