Industry Lobbyists Influence Obama's Environmental Regulations

A new report, entitled Behind Closed Doors at the White House, issued by the Center for Progressive Reform, reveals that the Obama administration didn't do a very good job while responding to the latest environmental challenges.

The recent study indicates that approximately 80% of the overall climate regulations highlighted by the Environmental Protection Agency have been modified so far, reports The Guardian.

The changes have been performed under the close supervision of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, also known as OIRA. Cass Sunstein leads Oira. He is Obama's longtime friend from Harvard Law School.

At this point in time, the organization he manages estimates the efficiency of potential governmental regulations by establishing how they would work after being put into practice.

Apparently, OIRA could be held responsible for harmful delays and less strict regulations, with devastating effects upon the environment and a beneficial impact on the line of business of several major companies.

"A steady stream of industry lobbyists — appearing some 3,760 times over the ten-year period we studied — uses OIRA as a court of last resort when they fail to convince experts at agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to weaken pending regulations," reveals the report.

All the changes implemented go against basic measures of environmental preservation, destroying the work of scientists and environmental groups that struggled to restore the balance of the environment.

"Every single study of its performance, including this one, shows that Oira serves as a one-way ratchet, eroding the protections that agency specialists have decided are necessary under detailed statutory mandates, following years — even decades — of work,” reveal the authors of the report.

The issued report questions the transparency of government decisions, as most of the adopted regulations seem to be in favor of lobbyists, rather than in favor of the environment, as they should be.

Experts say that a modern, efficient administration should implement appropriate regulations based on the experience and knowledge of a team of toxicologists, pediatricians and geologists.

“More importantly, OIRA review provides a redundant and unnecessary opportunity for industry lobbyists to influence regulatory decisionmaking, and to do so in the more politicized environment of the White House, thus allowing politics to trump agency expertise,” concluded the experts involved in the highly controversial report.