The Bush administration is being accused of undermining an environmental regulation at the request of energy and oil companies. According to the Los Angeles Times, the White House pressured the Environmental Protection Agency to loosen rules that would have forced companies to keep groundwater clean near oil drilling sites and other construction zones. The intervention was made after complaints by energy companies and a direct appeal from a Texas oil executive to White House senior advisor Karl Rove. In 2002, the executive, Ernest Angelo, wrote Rove the proposed regulations were causing many in the oil industry to doubt supporting Republicans “when we wind up with this type of stupidity.” Rove forwarded the letter to top presidential environmental advisors and instructed them to respond. The EPA later modified the rules even after Congress had agreed on a detailed compromise. The new regulations went into effect this week. Sharon Buccino, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s land program called the rule change: “yet another example of the Bush administration rewarding their friends in the oil and gas industry at the expense of the environment and the public’s health.”