Scorched Earth

In spite of the brave front everyone on the hustings is putting up, some folks in Washington are thinking they may not be employed much past January 22 and are planning a scorched earth retreat.

More than 50 EPA staff are now crashing to finish greenhouse gas emission standards that would essentially ban all construction of new coal-fired power plants. Never before have so many EPA resources been devoted to a single regulation.

Agency regulations are issued by the likes of Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker behind desks in Washington. They owe their jobs to the man in the White House and know what to do to keep the gravy flowing.

Their regulations have the weight of statute law only without the bother of things like debate and voting as the congress knowing that they know nothing about the topics, abdicated their responsibility to the agency's. To undo anything an agency dictates, the congress would have to pass nullifying legislation and the president sign it. This means overcoming any filibuster threats by Senators who see an opportunity to bring home big pork in exchange for their votes. Remember the "Cornhusker Kickback" and the "Louisiana Purchase" that helped buy Obamacare.

Look for more such shenanigans to pop up between Nov 6 and Jan 22 if Obama loses. Of course if he wins, look for the same thing over a longer time frame.