Bush Orders EPA to Weaken New Ozone Standards

The EPA just announced its revised standards for ozone (aka “smog”), and the new rules are causing quite a stink.

First, EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson once again ignored the recommendations of his own independent panel of science advisers in setting standards that, while better than the old ones, are too weak to protect either public health or natural resources. And then we find out that President Bush ordered the EPA to weaken the standards even further, choosing polluters over the health and welfare of the people he's sworn to serve and protect, and meddling in a way that may actually be unlawful.

Johnson claims the questionable decision was his alone, but that's not what the memos and other documents show. And that doesn't explain the last-minute scramble to try to find rationalizations and legal justifications to prop up the weaker standards after the president called the play.

Learn more about the EPA's new ozone standards and President Bush's role in making the air you breathe more hazardous than it should be.