WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is abandoning its plan to immediately tighten air-quality rules nationwide to reduce emissions of smog-causing chemicals after an intense lobbying campaign by industry, which said the new rule would cost billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of jobs, officials said Friday.
The White House announcement that it was overruling the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to adopt a stricter standard for ground-level ozone came just hours after another dismal jobs reports and in the midst of an intensifying political debate over the impact of federal regulations on job creation. The president is planning a major address next week on new measures to stimulate employment, while Republicans in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail have harshly criticized the administration’s environmental and health regulations, which they claim are forcing layoffs and the export of jobs.
The E.P.A. following the recommendation of its scientific advisers, had proposed lowering the so-called ozone standard from that set by the Bush administration to a new stricter standard that would have thrown hundreds of American counties out of compliance with the Clean Air Act. It would have required a major effort by state and local officials, as well as new emissions controls by industries and across the country.
A few comments
He has stopped regulations that harm business this month.
Isn't it obvious to those Obamites, that the only job he cares about is his own.
Obama has performed a miracle. After the failed Presidency of George Bush I thought that it would take a decade for the Republicans to gain control of the Federal Government. But Obama has managed to have a Republican House elected last year and it is all but assured there will be a Republican Senate in 2012. But,I would have thought it impossible for the Republicans to win the Presidency in 2012. Not anymore. The combination of failure and feebleness has made the Republicans the favorite.
As a Libertarian, all I can say is.
"Mission accomplished". Progressive philosophy is discredited.
C. ALEXANDER BROWN
It is very distressing to see the back downs and the cave ins day after day.
Whatever implications it may have on you personally, it is all the more disheartening to see the Office of the President being degraded.
You are the commander in chief of our troops. Please take some heed from them and learn to fight your own battles.
Else, step aside and let others take the hot seat.
Maybe you do not have to look as far back as Abe Lincoln for a role model. Perhaps an LBJ would be more fitting in your situation, when he stepped aside for a job he no more felt connected to.
Note to myself: Next time I vote for a rookie, I will keep my irrational enthusiasm in check and first count how many "present" votes that candidate has voted.
Some posters here are asking things like 'when is he going to stand up for what he believes?'.
Once you figure out that the only thing Obama cares about or believes in is the re-election of Obama, then all his recent actions make perfect sense.
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Earth to Judy. No matter how much Obama tries to compromise or whatever he proposes, the house approves and enacts legislation. Clearly he’s realist and understands that the house is controlled by the GOP who were put there by an electorate in 2010 on the message to make Obama fail, and they are hell-bent to do so, no question. They are recklessly and doggedly pursuing this aim, regardless of the mandate Obama got when he was elected. He is powerless to do anything about it. This is after all how democracy works in america where the people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.