Greenhouse Gas Pollution Rule Sitting in White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for TOO Long

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While the NRDC and the Sierra Club push for cleaner air and a safer climate today with their creative new ad campaign, Think Progress notes that an important greenhouse gas pollution rule has been sitting in the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), which has been run (quite poorly, if you care about clean air and a livable climate) by Cass Sunstein since Obama took office, for the maximum length of time allowed (120 days).

More from Think Progress on this rule and others sitting in Cass Sunstein’s OIRA:

“The Greenhouse Gas New Source Performance Standard for Electric Generating Units for New Sources has now been at the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for 120 days – the maximum allowed by executive order. OIRA head Cass Sunstein’s reign has been marked by friendliness to polluter lobbyists and opposition to regulations that enforce the law for public health and safety. OIRA currently has 30 different final or proposed rules in its grasp for 120 days or more, the Center for Progressive Reform reports — Chemicals of Concern easily leads the pack, at 664 days in limbo.”

As I’ve written before on sister site Planetsave, Cass Sunstein’s appointment as the head of OIRA has been one of Obama’s biggest failures, if not his biggest. His record on polluter legislation and unwelcome changes his office have made to important regulations in the 11th hour have been as bad as or even surpassed anyone else’s in the history of that position. If Obama is re-elected (which I hope he is), I think we need to work hard to remove Sunstein from that position.

Image: Cass Sunstein & power plant via Truthout.org on flickr