NRDC Rounds Up Obama’s Environmental Progress

When it was announced last week that Obama was set to reverse Bush-era rules that weakened protection of endangered species, we wondered aloud whether anyone was keeping track of just how much progress the new administration has made thus far in terms of the environment. We should have known that the National Resources Defense Council was on it.

The NRDC, which also kept a comprehensive record of Bush’s environmental crimes, rounded up Obama’s green efforts in a recent article at The Huffington Post:

• January 26, 2009: President Obama directs the EPA to reconsider the agency’s decision to deny California’s strong limits on global warming pollution from cars, and he calls on the Department of Transportation to raise national fuel efficiency standards.February 4, 2009: More than 100,000 acres of Utah wilderness win protection from oil and gas drilling after the Department of Interior announced that it will cancel 77 leases issued under the Bush administration.
• February 5, 2009: President Obama signs a presidential memorandum requesting that the Department of Energy set new efficiency standards for common household appliances. This will save in 30 years the amount of energy produced by all the coal-fired power plants in America over a two-year period.
• February 6, 2009: The EPA announces it will reconsider its decision to deny California permission to set standards controlling greenhouse gases from motor vehicles.
• February 6, 2009: On instruction from EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, the Solicitor General asks the Supreme Court to drop the Bush administration’s desperate appeal to resurrect EPA’s illegal and harmful power plant mercury rule.
• February 10, 2009: Department of Interior Secretary Salazar announces that he is going to make a thorough review of the five-year Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas leasing program that was announced in the final days of the Bush administration.

That’s not even half of it – check out the rest at The Huffington Post.

What a relief, after the disaster that was George W. Bush’s presidency. It’s so nice to know that we’ve got years of additional progress to look forward to.

Link [The Huffington Post]

Related Posts:

Obama Reverses Bush-Era Endangered Species Rule
Update: Oil Leases in Utah Parklands Canceled
How Green is Obama’s New Team?
Mixed Opinions of Obama’s Pick for Interior Secretary
A Round-Up of Bush’s Midnight Regulations on the Environment