The Bush administration has killed or weakened a host of health, safety, and environmental protections -- including restrictions on hard rock mining, energy efficiency standards, and ergonomics rules to protect workers, just to name a few. OMB Watch provides a list of priority safeguards that have been weakened or revoked. Emissions Standards for Power Plants. The Bush administration announced on November 22 that it is rolling back protections to limit air pollution from factories, refineries and power plants as part of a long-expected overhaul of EPA’s New Source Review program. Specifically, EPA issued a final rule that allows facilities to set a high “pollution baseline"; exempts plants from updating pollution controls if government has reviewed those controls during the last 10 years; and allows plants to avoid pollution-control upgrades in specific equipment by meeting plant-wide targets for pollution reduction. Livestock Waste. Answering a court-imposed deadline, the Bush administration issued a weak final rule to limit runoff from livestock waste at large factory farms, which produce 220 billion gallons of liquefied manure each year. The rule waters down a previous Clinton-era proposal by reducing the number of affected operations by more than half; allowing factory farms to write their own permit conditions; and limiting the liability of major corporations for illegal spills by their subcontractors. Medical Privacy. Over the objections of privacy advocates, the Bush administration on August 14, 2002, issued new standards on the handling of patient medical records, replacing protections, adopted in the last month of the Clinton administration, that were strongly opposed by HMOs, insurance companies, and pharmaceuticals. Unlike the Clinton rules, which the Bush administration immediately suspended upon taking office, the revised standards do not require health care providers to obtain patients' written permission before sharing medical records with hospitals, pharmacies, and insurance companies. Instead, they merely require that entities handling medical records inform patients of privacy practices. Based on recommendations submitted by the American Osteopathic Association, among others, the White House Office of Management and Budget is instructing Health and Human Services (HHS) to revisit these standards. Contractor Responsibility. Two days after Christmas, with no one around to object, the Bush administration quietly revoked a Clinton-era rule that promotes greater accountability for federal contractors -- to make sure they comply with important public protections. Specifically, this contractor responsibility standard instructed government contracting officers to look at a bidding company's compliance with the law (including tax laws, labor laws, employment laws, environmental laws, antitrust laws and consumer protection laws) before awarding taxpayer dollars. The rule was finalized on Dec. 20, 2000, by the Clinton administration, and went into effect on Jan. 19, 2001. On April 3, 2001, the Bush administration announced the suspension of the rule in the Federal Register, signaling its eventual repeal. Ergonomics Protections. Over a year after Congress voted to repeal Clinton-era ergonomics standards at the urging of President Bush, the Department of Labor announced on April 5 the release of its replacement "plan" -- a voluntary initiative that is nothing more than a smokescreen to mask the administration's unwillingness to seriously address injuries caused by repetitive motion, the most pressing health and safety issue confronting the workplace today. On Dec. 3, 2002, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao announced those who will serve on the National Advisory Committee on Ergonomics. “The committee will advise the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health on a number of issues related to OSHA’s four-pronged approach to reducing ergonomic-related injuries in the workplace - guidelines, research, outreach and assistance, and enforcement,” according to the Dept. of Labor press release. The committee members represent mainly industry interests, with only two members representing organized labor. Hard Rock Mining. The Bush administration announced on Oct. 25 that it would roll back environmental and land use protections for "hard rock" mining that were put in place shortly before President Clinton left office. The new, weaker standards were published in the Federal Register on Oct. 30, and went into effect on Dec. 31 of 2001. However, on May 16, Reps. Nick Rahall (D-WV) and Christopher Shays (R-CT) introduced H.R. 4748, which would tighten cheap and easy access to federal lands, and would toughen hard-rock mining rules that President Bush rolled back. The bill would reform the General Mining Law of 1872, a statute signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant, which contains no environmental protection provisions and has left the headwaters of 40 percent of western waterways polluted by mining. The 1872 Mining Law also allows a mining company to purchase mineral bearing public lands for $5/acre and, even if they don't buy the land, mine the minerals without payment to the American taxpayers, according to the Western Organization of Resource Councils. Unfortunately, the Rahall-Shays bill appears to be going nowhere. Air Conditioner Efficiency. On April 13, 2001, the Bush administration announced its decision to revise and roll back standards established by the Clinton administration for energy efficiency of air conditioners and heat pumps. The Clinton rule, published in January of 2001 after six years of development, would have made new air conditioners 30 percent more energy efficient by 2006. The Bush administration lowered that requirement to 20 percent. In June of 2001 a number of attorneys general, as well as public interest and environmental groups, challenged Dept. of Energy's decision in court. The lawsuit alleged that the administration illegally delayed and weakened the new standards, violating the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act of 1987, which prohibits any weakening of energy efficiency standards once they are set. On April 25, 2002, the district court dismissed the consolidated actions on grounds that the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to consider the issues raised by the plaintiffs. On May 23, 2002, the administration published a final rule raising the minimum energy efficiency levels by just 20 percent for most central air conditioners and heat pumps. In an October 19 letter, obtained by OMB Watch, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) criticizes DOE for ignoring the "strong rationale" for using the higher efficiency standard, while overstating the regulatory burden on manufacturers. Global Warming. On March 27, 2001, the Bush administration announced that it would withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, the international agreement to curb pollution that causes global warming. Just weeks before, on March 14, 2001, the Bush administration reversed the president’s campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide emitted by electric power plants, and is instead pursuing only "voluntary" measures. Carbon dioxide released by power plants is a major threat to climate change, disrupting weather patterns and causing sea levels to rise with unprecedented costs to the environment and human civilization. Legislation requiring significant cuts in emissions from electric power plants, including carbon dioxide, squeaked out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee by a vote of 10 to 9 on June 27, 2002, over the objections of the Bush administration. The bill (S. 556), sponsored by Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-VT), the committee’s chairman, would require emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) to be reduced by 83 percent, mercury by 90 percent, and carbon dioxide (CO2) by 23 percent, all by 2008.