Ozone not a pollutant either?

President Bush personally intervened to keep the Environmental Protection Agency, which had planned on tightening its ozone standards far below 80 ppm, from going any tighter than 75 ppm. Question is, can he even legally do that?

EPA officials initially tried to set a lower seasonal limit on ozone to protect wildlife, parks and farmland, as required under the law. 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, according to the documents.

“It is unprecedented and an unlawful act of political interference for the president personally to override a decision that the Clean Air Act leaves exclusively to EPA’s expert scientific judgment,” said John Walke, clean-air director for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The lawsuits are coming, and Earthjustice, assuming it’s the legal counsel, will get a check from me. And, they’ve got one good, if hostile witness already available:

Solicitor General Paul D. Clement warned administration officials late Tuesday night that the rules contradicted the EPA's past submissions to the Supreme Court, according to sources familiar with the conversation. As a consequence, administration lawyers hustled to craft new legal justifications for the weakened standard. …

Lisa Heinzerling, a Georgetown University law professor who specializes in the Clean Air Act, said Dudley's letter to the EPA represents “a misunderstanding of the statute, a misunderstanding of Supreme Court precedent and a misunderstanding of the science as the expert agency understands it.”

Bring on the lawsuits; I’m ready. And, let’s name people like Stephen Johnson, and even the president himself, as personal defendants, too. They’ll be out of office and ready to be sued by then.

Update: For more on what a sneaky “therefore” can show, read this NRDC blog post.

Four times, the EPA fought the White House on lessening new ozone standards. When it lost for the last time, the “therefore” was somebody’s way of making clear who made the call.