Obama Day One (and a Half): Halts Pending Bush Regulations, Ag & Energy Secretaries Confirmed

photo: Bethany King

No one seems to be wasting any time now that the Obama inauguration is over: Yesterday, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel issued a memo informing federal agency heads that President Obama wanted any pending Bush regulations not yet published in the Federal Register were to be halted for review:A routine move by an incoming president—getting the administration in order, allowing everyone to get up to speed—but in the last days of the Bush administration some pretty henious acts were taken: ProPublica has a list of Bush’s midnight regulations which will now have to reconsidered. TreeHugger will be following how these get revised, withdrawn or modified.

Also yesterday, in a widely expected move the Senate approved Tom Vilsack as Secretary of Agriculture (by a unanimous vote), Stephen Chu as Energy Secretary, and Ken Salazar as Interior Secretary.

via: LaVidaLocavore, ABCBush Administration, EnvironmentBush Administration’s Abysmal Environmental Record in Cool Interactive Graphic FormBush Administration Takes Another Last Minute Poke at the EnvironmentKentucky Environmental Groups Battle Bush Administration’s Midnight Rulemaking