When a political party wins the White House, the period between election day and inauguration day becomes an interregnum, a period of suspended government.
The current hiatus is a golden time for environmental groups. Many of the Bush administration's pending rules they dislike are being shelved, and environmental groups are drafting proposals for a "greener" Clinton administration.
WHAT'S BEEN DONE
So far, the Bush team has dropped its effort to relax rules protecting the nation's wetlands.
The White House Council on Environmental Quality had considered a package of changes, but Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William Reilly strongly objected.
So the issue was shelved until the National Academy of Sciences completes a study next year.
The Army Corps of Engineers revised its wetlands definitions 3 years ago, doubling the acreage under protection from development.
Wetlands rules are a key issue for the oil industry, which not only drills in and builds pipelines through such areas but also constructs roads through them to drier sites.
Refiners hope-and are getting hints-the Bush administration also will drop its controversial proposal to grant ethanol fuels a I psi waiver from the Clean Air Act's reformulated gasoline requirements (OGJ, Oct. 12, p. 36).
That waiver was clearly designed to help Bush's reelection prospects in the grain belt. But President-elect Bill Clinton may not be opposed to the concept.
The oil industry has estimated the waiver' which would double ethanol sales to 1.5 million gal/year by 1997, would cost the U.S. more than $250 million/year.
Refiners are concerned the interregnum is further delaying EPA's reformulated gasoline rules, particularly development of the "complex model" for gasoline that refiners will have to produce in 1995.
EPA has several other rules pending that will affect refiners ranging from air and water emissions to fuels formulation. All will be issued under the Clinton regime.
The new administration also will determine the fate of the Minerals Management Service's proposal to relax the definition of deepwater leases, cutting the royalty rate to 12.5% from 16.6% on fields in 200-400 m of water.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAM
Meanwhile, environmental groups are enthusiastically developing wish lists for the incoming administration.
More than 30 groups, mostly environmental, recently endorsed all or part of a "Sustainable Energy Blueprint."
That program calls for more conservation, a 50% cut in the use of oil for transportation fuels, and a 40% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions in the next 20 years.
Greenpeace and the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union jointly proposed shifting $15 billion from the Defense Department to the Energy Department, where it would be placed in a "superfund" for workers to create jobs in clean energy technologies.
Copyright 1992 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
