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WASHINGTON

The Bush president and cabinet has until Friday to publish new rules in order in favor of them to catch of fish effect before President-elect Barack Obama is sworn in. Otherwise, Obama consider power to loose them through the stroke of a pen.

A rule eliminating the mandatory, independent advice of government scientists in decisions about whether dams, highways and other projects are likely to injure species looked likable to come together the deadline, leaving the simply chance by reason of a quick reversal to Congress.

Drew Hammill, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., declared the House will be looking at ways to overturn the final endangered species rules and other one-minute-to-midnight regulations.

“The House, in seeking the advice from one side the incoming administration and to the purpose committees, will review what oversight tools are at our arrangement regarding this and other last-minute attempts to inflict severe mischief to the statute in the waning moments of the Bush administration,” Hammill said.

A Nov. 12 version of the final endangered species rules obtained by The Associated Press has changed little from the original proposal, despite the more than 250,000 comments received since it was first proposed in August.

The rules eliminate the input of federal wildlife scientists in some endangered figure cases, allowing the federal agency in ascribe of building, authorizing or funding a plot to determine for itself whether the project is likely to harm endangered wildlife and plants.

Current regulations require independent wildlife biologists to signify off without interruption these decisions before a project can go forward, at times modifying the design to better protect species.

The regulations furthermore bar federal agencies from assessing emissions of the gases blamed for global warming on species and habitats, a tactic environmentalists have tried to use to block new coal-fired power plants. But the Bush administration feels that endangered species laws should not be used to regulate greenhouse gases.

Tina Kreisher, an Interior Department spokeswoman, could not confirm whether the rule would be published before the deadline, saying only that the White House was still reviewing it. She said it was possible more changes could be made.

“We started this; we want to achieve this,” Kreisher said.

If the rules go into event before Obama takes business, they will be difficult to overturn since it would require the new administration to restart the rule-making process. Congress, however, could counterpart the rules through the Congressional Review Act, a law that allows review of new federal regulations.

It’s been used once in the past 12 years, but more Democratic lawmakers have said they may employ it to block the endangered species rules and other last-minute regulations by the Bush administration.

“This is a conspicuous example of the brash giveaways to diligence we expect to conceive during the Bush administration’s final days, and a new Congress will stand at the ready to use our authority to overturn this and other harmful rules,” said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., chair of the House select committee for energy independence and global warming.

The Bush administration has made none shrouded of its closely fixed to complete the endangered species changes quickly.

When the proposal was leading announced in August, the public was given 30 days to comment. That conclusion was doubled subsequent Democratic lawmakers pressed for more time.

Then, last month, the head of the endangered species program corralled 15 experts in Washington to sort through 200,000 comments in 32 hours.

“This is definitely lightning quick,” said John Kostyack, executive director of the National Wildlife Federation’session Wildlife Conservation and Global Warming initiative. “I would be surprised that they spent all this time rushing it through if it wasn’t greased.”

If successful, the Bush administration will accomplish through rules what opposed to change Republicans have been unable to bring to pass in Congress: ending some environmental reviews that developers and other federal agencies blame for delays and cost increases onward many projects.

Supporters of the changes likewise expected it to be finalized later this week.

The Pacific Legal Foundation, which advocates for exclusive right rights, urged that the rules be approved.

“Litigious activists have used the Endangered Species Act to fight projects,” Reed Hopper, the foundation’s principal attorney, related in a statement. “The administration’s stream proposal is a remove toward curbing these abuses.”

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