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March 14, 2008 The Washington Post reports today about a last-minute intervention by President Bush that effectively weakened limits on smog-forming ozone that were contained in the Clean Air Act. “[Environmental Protection Agency] officials initially tried to set a lower seasonal limit on ozone to protect wildlife, parks and farmland, as required under the law,” claimed the Post article. “While their proposal was less restrictive than what the EPA's scientific advisers had proposed, Bush overruled EPA officials and on Tuesday ordered the agency to increase the limit.” The newspaper article was based on documents released by the EPA late Wednesday night which, “provided insight into how White House officials helped shape the new air-quality rules that, by law, are supposed to be decided by the EPA administrator.” The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) had a problem with the EPA’s separate standards for “public welfare” and “public health.” Public health “sets a legal limit on how high ozone levels can be at any one time,” whereas public welfare levels relate to the long-term effect of ozone on crops, ecosystems and the environment. The EPA wanted the welfare level lower but Bush said no, according to the Post. “When the OMB's Susan E. Dudley urged the EPA to consider the effects of cutting ozone further on ‘economic values and on personal comfort and well-being,’ the EPA's Marcus Peacock responded in a March 7 memo: ‘EPA is not aware of any information that ozone has beneficial effects on economic values or on personal comfort and well being.’” As explained in the Council of Canadians report, Behind Close Doors, in a section on regulatory harmonization: Under the SPP, Canada is harmonizing its regulatory practices with a U.S. government that is busily deregulating its entire economy. In July 2007, a new executive order came into effect requiring all U.S. departments to prove a market failure” before any new rules or regulations can be passed. Approval for regulations is to be centralized in a new Regulatory Policy Office within the White House and headed by a presidential appointee. "This can only further delay implementing health, safety and environmental protections," Gary Bass, executive director of OMB Watch, told the Associated Press at the beginning of July. Like Canada’s “Smart Regulation” agenda, the U.S. order also encourages corporations to set their own standards. The SPP will force Canada to adopt whatever regulatory policy is set in Washington. Is Bush’s veto of the EPA’s legal right to determine ozone limits an example of the President’s new authority in action? It certainly looks that way, based on Ms. Dudley’s emphasis on the “economic value” of separate ozone level limits. Bush has a long record of ignoring scientific authorities and his new authority to quash regulations based on market considerations should give Canadian lawmakers pause as our departments of health and environment work quietly to harmonize how Canada and the U.S. go about “protecting” citizens from harmful chemicals and pollutants.
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