Greens have been singing "won't you go home, Bill Daley" for a while (turn-of-the-century music jokes, anyone? No?). The now-former chief of staff was the guy responsible for kneecapping EPA smog regulations, and he was generally considered to be in the administration merely as a sop to Big Business. So now he's resigning, and probably the next guy will be an improvement? We hope?
Critics on the left say Daley, who will be replaced by Office of Management and Budget chief Jack Lew, was too close to business interests.
“While Lew's environmental ethic remains to be seen, it's hard to see how he could be worse than Daley, who seemed to do whatever big business asked of him,” said Bill Snape, senior counsel with the Center for Biological Diversity.
Famous last words. Still, it's true that it would be hard for Lew to be more unpopular than Daley at this point. One environmentalist did sort of come to his defense, pointing out to The Hill that the EPA has had a pretty good record during Daley's year on the job, but that person declined to even be named. When your friends want to remain anonymous and your detractors say things like this:
"Daley will be most remembered for his disastrous political and public health decision to scuttle smog standards that had scientific consensus and would have saved literally thousands of lives and millions of dollars in health care costs, not to mention help abate climate change impacts," Snape said in an email, and also noted that some other EPA rules have been delayed, including greenhouse gas standards for power plants.
… it's probably time to cut your losses.
