The waning Bush administration is poised to exempt poultry farms from reporting to the EPA how much ammonia and other noxious pollutants they spew into the air, the Baltimore Sun reports. The poultry industry has requested the exemption, arguing that the millions of tons of manure produced by their flocks don’t create a significant environmental hazard. According to the Environmental Integrity Project, chicken farms in Maryland alone emit more than 20 million pounds of ammonia each year.

At high levels in air, [ammonia] can irritate skin, eyes and throat, cause coughing and burn lungs and bronchial passages. In extreme cases, it can cause death. People with asthma may be more sensitive to breathing it than others, according to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. […]

Ammonia releases contribute to the [Chesapeake B]ay’s woes because they add to the estuary’s overdose of nutrients. Nitrogen and another fertilizing nutrient, phosphorus, spur vast growths of algae in the bay. As those floating microscopic plants die, sink and decompose on the bottom, they deplete the water of the oxygen that fish need to live.

As much as a third of the nitrogen fouling the water comes from the air, according to Lewis Linker of the EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program. While most of the nitrogen in air comes from coal-burning power plants or vehicle exhaust, about a third is from farms.

But in agricultural areas such as the Eastern Shore, ammonia from farms makes up the majority of nitrogen coming from the air, said Linker. Nitrogen emissions from vehicles and power plants have declined in recent years as air pollution rules have tightened. Farm emissions, which are not regulated, have not changed. […]

Though the EPA has not set any air-quality standards for ammonia from farms, studies indicate that levels of the gas in the exhaust vents from barns can be higher than the workplace exposure limits set by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, according to Eric Schaeffer, a former EPA official who heads the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project.

If the exemption is published in the Federal Register by next Friday, it would take effect in 30 days; any rules that go into effect before Obama takes office can’t be overturned by him, and could take months or years to overturn.

7 replies on “More Midnight (De)Regulations”

  1. Keith Olbermann said something last night that I think is poignant:”Do you ever wonder if Mr. Bush’s goal was to become president so he could spend 8 years doing as much damage to this country as time and his own energies would allow?”

    I think answer that becomes more resoundingly clear every day is MOTHERFUCKING YES!!!!

  2. Well, why not? That’s been pretty much SOP for shrub in every other business venture he’s gotten into, so why would anyone who knows his history expect his tenure as POTUS to be any different?

    And I think Pelosi and Reid should just come out right now and flat-out assert that ANY “midnight regs” this administration pushes through will be summarily overturned by Congress in the first 30 days of the new session.

    I don’t know what the odds will be they could pull that off, given they’re short of a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, but it ought to be worth threatening at any rate.

  3. Seriously @1, I’m thinking the exact same thing.

    Maybe he’s taking the idea that his approval rating couldn’t get any lower as a challenge? Maybe he thinks that if he’s already going down in history as the worst president this country has ever had that he might as well make that title stick for as long as possible?

    How the fuck else can you explain all the crap he’s doing? Can’t we throw him out early? PLEASE? Pretty fucking please?

  4. Day 1: Rescind all executive orders since 2008.

    Day 2: Rescind all regulations since 2008, including the removal of the uptick rule that kept shortsellers from creating our current Depression.

    Day 3: Send back all GITMO prisoners to Saudi Arabia and replace them with CEOs.

  5. They’ve got over a month to finish the job of fucking up this country as thoroughly as possible and there’s no sign they’re even slowing down. It’s a scorched-Earth policy, and now that re-election isn’t an issue there’s no reason to even try to put a happy face on it.

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