On June 21, EPA announced a proposal for a revised national standard for ozone exposure. The proposal, mandated by court order, proposes a range from which EPA will pick its final standard. Any limit picked from within the proposed range will fall short of what is needed to protect the public health. EPA's proposed range is 0.070 to 0.075 parts per million, but in recent months scientific consensus has emerged in supporting a limit no greater than 0.070 ppm and ideally closer to 0.060 ppm. EPA has already caught a lot of flack (for example, click here) for skirting a real decision and proposing limits weaker than scientists have recommended. But the role of the White House should be scrutinized as well. Under Executive Order 12866, agencies are required to submit to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) "significant" proposed rules for a regulatory review period. During the review of the ozone standard, the perfect storm of political and corporate interests converged in the White House's central review office. One problem is OIRA's new administrator, Susan Dudley. President Bush recess appointed Dudley this April. Bush circumvented the Senate instead of facing further opposition from public interest groups like OMB Watch who opposed Dudley because of her fundamental disdain for federal regulation. Dudley's past work has exhibited particular hostility towards EPA's ozone standard. Dudley has actually argued ground-level ozone is beneficial, citing the widely-discredited claim that it protects humans from skin cancer. When EPA was setting the ozone standard in 1997, Dudley submitted comments saying "EPA's proposal may harm public health and welfare, regardless of cost." Critics also feared Dudley would provide industry lobbyists undue access during the review process. During the review of the ozone standard, those fears manifested. OIRA met twice with industry lobbyists including representatives from the Chemical Industry Institute, the Auto Alliance, and the Edison Electric Institute. These industry groups have a long record of opposing more stringent air pollution regulation. The White House wasn't done injecting political influence into the review of the ozone standard. In the second OIRA meeting with industry representatives, an official from the Office of the Vice President made an unusual appearance. In 2002, President Bush officially ended the role of the Vice President in the rulemaking process. Since then, a representative from Vice President Dick Cheney's office has been present in only five of 482 regulatory review meetings. Unfortunately, the corrupting influence of Dudley, industry and the Vice President's office is mere speculation. Because the rulemaking process suffers from such a dearth of transparency, we may never know the exact influence of these players on the final outcome. This situation highlights two particularly opaque spots in the transparency of the rulemaking process. First, the public is not readily afforded the opportunity to view EPA's pre-review proposal. While we do know EPA staff scientists and two advisory committees suggested markedly tighter standards, we do not know what agency brass decided to submit for the White House's reviewing pleasure. Subsequently, we do not know what person or persons tinkered with scientific conclusions in order to produce this weak proposal. Second, we do not know what OIRA, industry reps and the Vice President's staffer discussed during review meetings. OIRA maintains on its website a log of all meetings which identifies which rule was discussed and who attended. However, although E.O. 12866 requires OIRA disclose "the subject matter discussed" during these meetings, that information is rarely revealed. Equally unsettling, an EPA official was not present during the first review meeting. Dudley has refused to comment on why EPA was absent. For years, OMB Watch has advocated for more transparency in the inner-workings of OMB and OIRA. While the Bush administration has made some progress in improving transparency in the rulemaking process, the review of EPA's ozone standard shows the severity of the problems that remain. To be presented with such a crucial public health standard, yet to know so little of the underlying decision-making, is frustratingly undemocratic.