That may seem a rather harsh heading, but how else to describe the Bush Administration’s cynical issuing of about seventy Executive Orders to rescind environmental regulations before President-Elect Barack Obama takes office?

The Executive Orders run the gamut from wilderness issues at the Bureau of Land Management to easing lead emissions at the Environmental Protection Administration .

An example of regulation change is that affecting coal mine waste, as cited by The Wilderness Society:
“We expect the Bush administration to rescind a 1983 regulation adopted during the Reagan administration that protects streams from the dumping of wastes from coal strip mining. The current Office of Surface Mining rule prohibits wastes from coal mines from being deposited in streams. The Bush administration proposal would rescind this protection for streams, allowing for the further expansion of a coal mining technique known as “mountain-top removal,” where mining companies literally blow up the tops of mountains to reach coal seams and dispose of the waste rock in stream valleys.”

There is some hope for relief from this attack. An analysis at Congressional Quarterly explains how Congress may act to overturn some of these Executive Orders, if it moves fast enough and if the concerns of conservative Democrats can be satisfied.