Copyright © 2000 Associated Press
December 21, 2000
By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Departing with a flurry of activity, the Clinton administration is rushing out a stream of regulations - roping off millions of acres of federal land from developers, requiring less polluting trucks, protecting miners with black lung disease, and other actions.

The latest came Thursday as the White House and Environmental Protection Agency made public new requirements intended to cut pollution from heavy-duty trucks and buses by more than 90 percent over the next decade. Refiners also are directed to produce virtually sulfur-free diesel fuel.

President Clinton is determined to fashion a legacy of major initiatives in areas of public health, the environment and worker rights, administration officials say.

Business groups already are preparing for a counterattack. They hope that Congress, the courts and the incoming, more business-friendly Bush administration will soften some of the still unfinished rules and possibly roll back others.

``What Clinton is trying to do is put the next administration into a regulatory straight jacket,'' said Bill Kovacs, vice president for environment and regulatory affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. ``Once these regulations are in effect, it's very difficult to change them.''

The regulatory rush before a change of administrations ``is not all that unusual'' especially for Democrats, who are traditionally more active in crafting a social agenda, says Pietro Nivola, an expert in regulatory politics at the Brookings Institution.

He noted there was a flurry of such activity at the close of the Carter administration 20 years ago, although GOP administrations have generally been less active as they leave office.

The White House plays down the significance of the late regulations, saying every president wants to close unfinished business as his administration winds down. Many rules were in the works for months, even years in some cases, officials say.

``There's been ample time for the public to weigh in, for interest groups to weigh in,'' White House press secretary Jake Siewert said.

The flow of major rules, regulations, standards and executive orders - a ``midnight binge'' of rulemaking, according to some GOP lawmakers - have been eye-catching. Among the areas affected:

-diesel fuel and truck pollution.

-privacy of health records.

-labeling standards for organically grown foods.

-coal miners' ability to get benefits for black lung disease.

-pollution from cattle and pig feedlots.

-mercury pollution from power plants.

-protection of Hawaiian coral reefs.

-protections for employees against repetitive-stress injuries.

-tighter environmental rules for the hard-rock mining industry.

The president is not finished, administration officials acknowledge.

Expected early in 2001 is a new requirement to banning the building of roads on nearly 60 million acres of federal forests. Also, the EPA is preparing regulations tightening arsenic levels in water, lead levels in soil, and wetlands protection.

Like the diesel fuel requirements, the expected restrictions on large, pristine areas of federal forests is meeting sharp resistance in Congress.

With energy prices high, GOP lawmakers have characterized the diesel rule and forest road ban as a threat to future energy supplies. Such claims are scoffed at as untrue by environmentalists.

The forest road restrictions ``may have severe implications for the future of production of natural gas,'' Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, argued recently, hinting at the likely arguments to be made in the next Congress.

Although time is running out, Clinton is not done using his executive authority to protect more public land under the 1906 Antiquities Act. He used that power in 1996 to set aside 1.7 million acres of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, and a half dozen smaller areas since then.

Among the federal lands expected to gain monument status - and the special protection with it - is a 150-mile stretch of grasslands along the upper Missouri River known as the Missouri Breaks.

Clinton also has come under pressure from environmentalists to assure permanent protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska from oil development.

Interest in declaring the refuge's oil-rich coastal plan a federal monument took on added weight after President-elect Bush made drilling for oil in the reserve a key part of his proposed energy plan.

The arctic reserve is now protected against oil drilling, but lawmakers could enact legislation allowing development.

While Clinton ``was looking at the issue,'' it is not under active consideration, spokesman Siewert said. Error: Unable to read footer file.