Romney’s Goals on Environmental Regulation Would Face Difficult Path

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/us/politics/romney-weed-whacker-on-environmental-rules-may-falter.html?hpw

But as President Obama learned in his first years in office as he tried to undo some of his predecessor’s industry-friendly energy and environmental policies, such promises are easier to make than keep. They require the rewriting of decades-old laws, the assent of a balky Congress, favorable rulings from courts and a bureaucracy that works smoothly and swiftly to advance a president’s goals. That is a steep hill in today’s Washington.
      

Cutting the regulatory state down to size has been a mainstay of Republican campaign oratory for years, and the basis of an avalanche of bills passed over the past 18 months by the conservative House Republican majority, all of which have died in the Democratic-led Senate.

      

For a President Romney to succeed in his pledges would require a significant revision to the Clean Air Act and other landmark environmental laws enacted over the past 40 years. It would also mean overcoming longstanding political opposition to oil drilling off the Florida coastline and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. His administration would have to undergo a time-consuming process of withdrawing current and pending federal rules and resubmitting them through the complex regulatory system.