When President Bush nominated Susan Dudley to head the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs — the clearinghouse for executive branch regulations — OMB Watch opposed her nomination on the grounds she would stall or weaken public protections. Dudley has a long record of opposing regulation and believing the free-market will fix everything. Before her nomination, Dudley had worked at the Mercatus Center, an industry-funded think tank at George Mason University. A number of public interest, environmental, and labor groups rallied public opposition to Dudley and lobbied the Senate to reject her confirmation. Dudley's nomination stalled in the Republican-controlled 109th Congress and was not even considered in the early days of the current Congress. Never deterred by overwhelming public opinion or congressional concern, President Bush appointed Dudley during a Senate recess last April. The White House's interference in EPA's revision to the national standard for ozone, or smog, which the agency announced March 12, proved our fears right. Dudley, with President Bush in her corner, pushed forward with her industry-friendly, anti-regulatory ideology in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence and in violation of the law. EPA chose to tighten the primary, or public health, standard to 0.075 parts per million (ppm) from its current level of 0.084 ppm. Environmentalists and public health advocates are criticizing the agency for ignoring the unanimous recommendation of EPA's independent clean air advisory body — the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee — which recommended a standard between 0.060 ppm and 0.070 ppm. However the secondary standard is the subject of controversy as well, as evidence shows the White House pressured EPA to make last-minute changes. Under the Clean Air Act, EPA may set a secondary standard for the protection of public welfare. This provision allows EPA to tailor a standard to meet special considerations, such as seasonal variance, with the goal of protecting things that do not directly impact public health but may impact our way of life, such as ecological health. When EPA first proposed the revised standard for ozone in July 2007, it laid out two options for the secondary standard: 1) tighten the standard to the same level as the primary standard; or 2) set a separate seasonal standard that would afford additional protection to sensitive plant life harmed by ozone's deleterious effects during times of intense ozone exposure. As EPA was preparing to finalize both the primary and secondary standard, Dudley pushed EPA to adopt option 1. Dudley cited the possible negative economic impact that the additional protections embodied in the second option could levy. Dudley was advocating an illegal interpretation of the Clean Air Act. The Act prohibits EPA from considering costs when setting ozone standards. When EPA sets out the implementation plans for meeting ozone standards (the next phase in this process), it is allowed, and indeed required, to consider economics in order to create a situation in which communities and polluters can meet the standard but bear the lowest compliance costs possible. Dudley even went so far as to ask EPA to consider possible benefits of smog. Dudley has a history of trying to make smog seem like a good thing by claiming it helps block the sun's harmful UVB rays. Of course, the stratospheric ozone layer serves to block the sun's rays, but ground-level ozone is quite different. EPA rightly rejected Dudley's claim stating, "EPA is not aware of any information indicating beneficial effects of ozone on public welfare." Thankfully, EPA decided to ignore Dudley's complaints. On March 11, just a day before announcing the ozone standards, the agency issued a memo stating EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson intended to adopt the second option — the seasonally adjusted standard: "The seasonal form is the most scientifically defensible. Ozone decreases the ability of plants to produce and store food. The impact of repeated ozone exposure accumulates over the course of the growing season." (The memo was marked confidential but is now available in the rulemaking record.) In defense of Johnson's decision, the memo cited studies and comments by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Park Service, USDA, and EPA's own staff and independent science advisors. Johnson's decision to choose the "scientifically defensible" option is consistent with the Clean Air Act's requirements that the agency base its decision on the latest and best available science. Later on March 11, President Bush himself was brought in to settle the dispute between EPA and Dudley. Unfortunately, Bush sided with Dudley and forced EPA into setting the secondary standard identical to the primary standard. In addition to ignoring the science in favor of extending protections to plant life, Bush and Dudley's obstinacy opens EPA's decision up to legal challenge. Usually, the Bush White House is able to water down regulations early in the rulemaking process, before supporting documents go public and scrutiny grows. By doing this, White House officials avoid getting their hands dirty. Agency staff members end up taking the heat for rules the public doesn't like. But because of the last-minute interference evident here, and because EPA stood up to Dudley's harassment, the White House left an easily identifiable paper trail. Finally, Americans have hard evidence that White House officials are ignoring public interests to pursue a special-interest-driven, anti-regulatory agenda. This is one of the most shocking examples of the White House interfering in an agency regulation at the expense of public health and welfare. font-size:10px"> width="100%" bgcolor="#F0F8FF" style="color:black; border-width:4px; border-style:solid; border-color:#000080;"> Recommendations of EPA Experts EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee Primary standard: 0.060 parts per million (ppm) - 0.070 ppm Secondary standard: 7.5 ppm-hours - 15 ppm-hours EPA Staff Primary Standard: 0.060 ppm - "somewhat below" 0.080 ppm Secondary Standard: 7.5 ppm-hours - 21 ppm-hours EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson Primary Standard: 0.075 ppm Secondary Standard: 21 ppm-hours Final standards announced March 12 Primary Standard: 0.075 ppm Secondary Standard: identical to primary standard