EPA chief floats radical plan to weaken Clean Air Act

Well, it was bad enough that the Bush administration chose to disregard the advice of EPA's own independent science advisers in setting a weak new national health standard for ozone.

But Bush appointee Steve Johnson didn't stop with one favor to polluting industry: he announced March 12 that he was backing a long-sought polluter plan to weaken the Clean Air Act. Johnson said the Bush administration wants to change the law to permit costs to be considered when national clean air standards are set.

You may recall that the Supreme Court ruled against industry in 2001, and said costs could not be considered. That's because the national clean air standards are supposed to be based exclusively on science. They are supposed to let the public know, based on science alone, when the air is safe to breathe.

Adding cost considerations leaves the process open to manipulation. (Note, for example, that the Bush administration has significantly reduced the projected benefits of environmental standards simply by changing a few assumptions that go into the calculations.)

The smog decision went against the unanimous recommendation of EPA’s own independent science advisers, who said science demanded a tougher standard to protect kids with asthma and other vulnerable breathers. Two years ago, the Bush administration also rejected the advisers’ advice in 2006 regarding national standards for particle soot.

In both cases, real science was tainted by political science. The Bush administration decided to compromise public health to save industry money. Because of these decisions, more people will get sick, and more people will die. And now the Bush crowd wants to re-write the law to give industry even more leverage.

It's not the first time the head of EPA has floated such a notion; the last time it was Reagan EPA chief Anne Burford, before she left the agency amid scandals.

And the idea also was floated in the 90s by Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, who was dubbed "Smokey Joe Barton" by the Dallas Morning News.

Even the Newt Gingrich Congress thought that was a bad idea.

But as Congress starts getting serious about global warming, the Bush crowd appears to be floating an offer: give us this (a weaker Clean Air Act) and we might take that (limits on global warming pollutants).

Let's hope our law makers realize this should not be a tradeoff.