Wading Through Bush's Last-Minute Flurry of Energy and Environmental Regulations

Obama can ask the appropriate agency to write a new rule. But that may take many years to complete, since it requires marshaling sufficient data, drafting the new rule, and allowing the public time to comment.

Congress, meanwhile, has at least two options. Under the Congressional Review Act of 1996, it can reject a regulation by passing a joint resolution (rules published anytime this fall, experts say, are vulnerable to the CRA), although the act has been used successfully only once, in 2001. "The question," says de Rugy, "is whether they use the CRA. In theory, the president has all the stars in alignment," since Democrats control both the House and the Senate. Congress can also write new legislation to get around the rules.

Several Democratic leaders already have signaled their interest in using the Congressional Review Act to revoke policies they find particularly distasteful.

In the meantime, much of the action is in the courts. Yesterday, California sued the Bush administration over two rules that it says will weaken the Endangered Species Act: one that makes it easier for loggers and miners to get permits in protected areas and another that allows agencies to ignore possible impacts of greenhouse gas emissions in their assessments of new projects. Environmentalists have filed other lawsuits against the administration's last-minute policies on mountaintop mining, endangered species protections, and lease sales of wilderness land. More are almost certainly on the way.

• Read about new Environmental Protection Agency rules that do little to protect water quality.
• Read about how Obama is likely to boost water quality protections after years of lax regulation.