Squared: I'm not sure my take on Bush's environmental record will ever satisfy you, but here goes: We're not talking about laws here -- we're talking about EPA regulations (regulations : laws :: M*A*S*H : Catch-22). I don't think this is a case of ex post facto legitimizing of polluters. Simply put, the EPA has adopted new standards; rather than pursue polluters under the old standards, the department will leave that money in the bank. Sensible, as far as I'm concerned.

Okay, I won't split hairs. Call them laws. From a strict legal standpoint, a change in law (or jurisprudence) will naturally affect those charged. Let's say you're charged with eating a roast beef sandwich in the park. The day before you're called to stand trial for your offense, the city parks commission decides that they will now allow roast-beef-sandwich-eating activities. So you're gonna go before that judge and say, "Fair cop, your honor. I'll pay the fine"? Forgive me, but bullshit. You're going to argue that the change in policy shows that the park has awakened to your plight and blah blah blah, and you'll either win or cause the park to spend gobs of money fighting your appeal -- that is, fighting to prosecute you for something you're now allowed to do anyway.

[Sidebar: Your attempt to stir my moral indignation with a gratuitous death-penalty reference is wasted. Besides, it's only an old lawyer's trick of distraction. Who cares what the inverse of this situation is? We're not talking about the inverse. The analogy above is a better way to look at it.]

Moreover, the change in policy, which will no doubt be covered by the "neutral" media as a sop to "big pollution," is part of an overall pro-market plan for environmental efficiency; it's about time, too, that we approached the environment as we would any other issue of enormous cost and uncertain benefit. (E.g., how many people would you put out of work to save a Cerulean Warbler?) Part of that cost-benefit reassessment will obviously trickle down into enforcement, with activities like prosecution of non-crimes being pretty high on the budget-cutting list. If it's time for the old liberal-green policy paradigm to be reconsidered (and I think it is), doesn't it make sense to shut down prosecutions on things we don't consider crimes anymore?

The environmentalists will spin everything Bush does as part of a black-thumbed plan to pave the entire country (except for snowmobile trails). It doesn't wash, though. The decision to change pollution standards is a good idea, and the decision to cease prosecution under the old standards is smart policy and good budgeting.