President Obama: He's Just Like (B)Us!(h)

Back in March of 2008, President George W. Bush went against the advice of his own EPA's scientists, sacrificing the well-being and even lives of literally thousands of Americans a year. Scientists recommended setting ground-level ozone (smog) limits at 60 to 70 parts per billion (ppb), yet Bush's EPA set the level at 75 ppb, down from the previous limit of 84 ppb.

According to the EPA's scientists at the time, setting the limit at 75 ppb instead of 65 ppb would result in between 1,700 and 5,700 premature deaths per year.

For this reason, Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer rightly called the move "outrageous," adding, "The Bush Administration would have us replace clean air standards driven by science with standards based on the interests of polluters."

Today, President Obama pulled a draft EPA recommendation which current EPA administrator Lisa P. Jackson had said back in January 2010 would recommend the limit be placed between 60 and 70 ppb - the same range Bush-era EPA scientists recommended. Jackson said she chose to revisit the standard because the level set by the Bush administration was significantly higher than that recommended by EPA scientists at the time.

Mr. Obama claimed he rejected the draft because:

“Work is already underway to update a 2006 review of the science that will result in the reconsideration of the ozone standard in 2013,” Obama said. “Ultimately, I did not support asking state and local governments to begin implementing a new standard that will soon be reconsidered.”

I'm sure it is a coincidence that Mr. Obama, who knew for twenty months that the EPA was going to recommend changing the standard to within the 60 to 70 ppb range, abruptly pulled the draft and decided reconsideration should be delayed until 2013 about six weeks after "several major trade associations held a joint conference call with reporters to suggest that the EPA postpone the new standards until 2013."

In addition to all the jobs created for oncologists and inhaler manufacturers, Obama's Bush-like fealty to business interests over scientific consensus will put another few thousand people in the grave and off the unemployment line. So there's that.