Conservation and Free-Market Groups Call for Regulation Moratorium

Washington, D.C., October 31, 2008—A coalition of
conservation and free market groups have joined together to call on the Bush
Administration to suspend new regulations.

The coalition includes the National Wildlife Federation,
the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the American Consumer Institute,
FreedomWorks,, the Capital
Research Center and the Environmental Defense Fund. 
The groups are calling on President Bush to keep a promise his own chief of
staff, Josh Bolten, made this year and avoid issuing new regulations after
November 1st.  A letter outlining the arguments for a
moratorium was sent to the White House on Friday. Republicans for Environmental Protection

The broad coalition, which includes conservation, consumer,
taxpayer, and free-market groups, today announced the beginning of an effort
to discourage the Bush administration from issuing “midnight regulations” on
its way out of office.

“This is a matter of good regulatory policy,” said Eli Lehrer, a Senior Fellow at the Competitive
Enterprise Institute. “The Bush administration has had eight years in
office and has issued more regulations than any administration in history. At
this point, in the current economic climate, it would be especially harmful to
push through ill-considered regulations in the final days of the administration.
Unless it’s a real emergency, the administration should keep its word on this
matter.” 

John Kostyack, Executive Director of Wildlife
Conservation and Global Warming at the National Wildlife Federation
agreed: “We are calling on President Bush to keep his promise not to issue new
regulations in the 11th hour of his presidency. Midnight rule-making
allows unfavorable, controversial policies to become law by circumventing the
citizen participation process. It would be unconscionable to push forward regulations
at the last minute that the public clearly opposes, such as rolling back
Endangered Species Act protections.

NWF’s mission is to inspire Americans to protect wildlife
for our children’s future.

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group
dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government. 
For more information about CEI, please visit our website at www.cei.org.