Bush vexes environmentalists with 11th-hour changes

Opponents say administration officials breezed through 250,000 public comments -- most of them criticizing the proposal -- in less than a week. "They've clearly made a predetermined decision to issue it no matter what the public comments say, which is not what we're supposed to do in this country," said Andrew Wetzler, director of the endangered species project at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The NRDC, the Sierra Club and other groups also oppose several rules not subject to the deadline and likely to be enacted soon, including eased restrictions on mountaintop mining near streams, reduced pollution reporting for large farms and weakened air quality controls near national parks.

If those rules are approved, Obama would need to initiate a potentially cumbersome process to revise them.

"They wouldn't be able to just put out a notice and just overturn them the next day," said Karla Raettig, the legislative representative for wildlife conservation for the National Wildlife Federation. A little-used law from the 1990s might allow Congress to overturn many of the regulations.

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jtankersley@tribune.com