8 Environmental Rules That Were Too Controversial To Enact Pre-Election

motherjones.com — Now that the election is over and Barack Obama will be staying in the White House for another four years, environmental groups are hoping that some long-awaited new rules will break loose from the regulatory log-jam. It's no surprise that a lot of the rules that seemed to do a disappearing act are the ones that the fossil-fuel industry and Republicans in Congress have opposed. While some rules were delayed this year because of election-season strategizing, others have been backlogged for years. The sticking place for many of them is the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget, a White House outpost that is supposed to review draft regulations within 90 days. Many advocates for tougher environmental and public health rules blamed OIRA for being too timid in Obama's first term, weakening or delaying any rule that could be contentious. Here are eight environmental problems that the Obama administration could soon get around to regulating.

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