Obama Reaches Out to Republicans & Retreats on Promised Environmental Standards

[amborin]

E.P.A. Delays Tougher Rules on Emissions

The Obama administration is retreating on long-delayed environmental regulations — new rules governing smog and toxic emissions from industrial boilers — as it adjusts to a changed political dynamic in Washington with a more muscular Republican opposition.
The move to delay the rules, announced this week by the Environmental Protection Agency, will leave in place policies set by President George W. Bush.
President Obama ran for office promising tougher standards, and the new rules were set to take effect over the next several weeks.

snip

The delays represent a marked departure from the first two years of the Obama presidency, when the E.P.A. moved quickly to reverse one Bush environmental policy after another. Administration officials now face the question of whether in their zeal to undo the Bush agenda they reached too far and provoked an unmanageable political backlash.

Environmental advocates are furious. They fear a similar delay on the approaching start of one of the most far-reaching regulatory programs in American environmental history, the effort to curb emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
But in a striking turnabout, the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute — which have been anything but friendly to Mr. Obama — are praising his administration.

snip

The delays come as the president is reaching out to a newly empowered Republican Party on tax policy, a move that is angering his own Democratic base. He must now decide whether to make similar efforts on environmental issues.
“Obama has already signaled that in his quest for re-election he’s more than willing to turn against his base in order to make a compromise with his adversaries,” Frank O’Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, an advocacy group, said in an e-mail, responding to the rules delay.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/10/science/earth/10epa.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

[FiveGoodMen]

1. Time to stop saying "Reaches out to.." and start saying "at home among his fellow..."

[taught_me_patience]

2. fuck.this.shit.

seriously... fuck this shit! I've had enough of these bullshit compromises.

[BeyondGeography]

3. What was this given up in return for?

Goodwill, for industry groups that will be financing his competitor in 2012?

[Catherina]

4. No. Impossible. Not the mostest bestest progressive EVAH! n/t

[bigtree]

5. a few months delay

. . . shouldn't set anyone's hair on fire.

[nashville_brook]

7. are you even getting slightly tired of having to defend the lameness of this administration?

you're the energizer bunny of loyalism.

[amborin]

8. how is waiting until April 2012 a "few months" delay?

(as if the rules will ever take effect...)

[Pale Blue Dot]

12. As you are so fond of pointing out...

How does this get easy with a Republican majority in Congress?

[somone]

6. Wonder what Nixon would have said

[Demoiselle]

9. Oh fer gawd's sake!

The Obama Administration's revival of honest to god environmental protections was something I was very grateful for. Now they've backed off? Cheeesh.

[katnapped]

10. Why doesn't he do the right thing

And hand the keys to Boner already?

SHEESH!

[IDemo]

11. Rubik's Chess