THREAD: The Trump Admin has been "locking in" regulatory rollbacks in unprecedented and unlawful ways to make like harder for the Biden Admin. Now they are trying to "salt the earth" with a new technique. Withdrawing rules proposed at the end of Obama so Biden can't revive them!

Today @EPA withdrew three safeguards for highly toxic chemicals that were proposed at the end of the Obama Admin. One is a chemical called methylene chloride commonly found in paint thinners. Trump's @EPA issued a weak rule that left workers that use paint thinners exposed.

Now @EPAAWheeler wants to make sure Biden can't revive the much stronger Obama proposal unless Biden starts the rulemaking process all over again. And Trump's @EPA has done nothing to finalize Obama proposed protections for the other two toxins (TCE/NMP).

Instead Trump's @EPA is spiking those Obama rules so Biden can't move to put those protections in place faster. Once these rules are withdrawn by Trump's @EPA Biden has to start from scratch.

The reason Trump's @EPA feels the need to do this (in bad faith) is because Trump only had one term. So usually when Presidents have two terms, any rules proposed at the end of previous Admin are 8 years old and too "stale" to revive. But Here, we're talking about only 4 years.

We haven't seen this "salt the earth" tactic of spiking proposed rules from the last President so they don't get revived and fast-tracked by the next President before because it's been a long time since we had a one term President. But we could see more of this before Jan 20.

In fact, @ENERGY also withdrew a proposed rule from the end of Obama today, while finalizing their preferred version of the rule (which rolls back energy efficiency requirements for water heaters and furnaces). Here's the take from @ACEEEdc https://twitter.com/ACEEEdc/status/1349736712801570816