Writes Kimberley A. Strassel on Obama’s Midnight Regulation Express – WSJ:
1. Obama Administration is “actively working to undermine a Donald Trump presidency.”
Unnamed administration sources whisper stories about Russian hackers to delegitimize Mr. Trump’s election. […] Trump transition-team members report how Obama officials are providing them with skewed or incomplete information […] Sen. Ron Johnson recently sent a letter to President Obama voicing alarm over “burrowing,” in which political appointees, late in an administration, convert to career bureaucrats and become obstacles to the new political appointees.
2. Obama Administration is issuing a “final flurry” of midnight regulations (“one issued between Election Day and the inauguration of a new president.”)
This past week we learned of several sweeping new rules from the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, including regs on methane on public lands (cost: $2.4 billion); a new anti-coal rule related to streams ($1.2 billion) and renewable fuel standards ($1.5 billion). This follows Mr. Obama’s extraordinary announcement that he will invoke a dusty old law to place nearly all of the Arctic Ocean, and much of the Atlantic Ocean, off limits to oil or gas drilling. This follows his highly politicized move to shut down the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota. And it comes amid reports the administration is rushing to implement last-minute rules on commodities speculation, immigrant workers and for-profit colleges—among others.
3. Trump Administration should repeal every “midnight regulation.”