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Waxman: Obama’s smog retreat is a mistake 'substantively and politically'
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said Thursday that President Obama’s decision to scuttle upcoming ozone pollution standards was a mistake “substantively and politically.”
“It was very discouraging to their environmental base, they didn’t really have a good rationale for it," Waxman told The Hill's E2 in the Capitol. "It just seemed that they were just bowing to a lot of pressure, and I don’t think that’s the way they ought to be,”
The criticism from Waxman, who has crafted major environmental laws, reveals the extent to which Obama’s decision has stung his allies on the left.
“I think that they could have gone forward with a regulation, based on the science, that would set an ozone standard that would protect the public health,” Waxman said. “But now that they have done it, I just hope that they understand that they are going to have to hold the line on everything else and not give anything more away on the environment.”
The White House has sought to reassure environmentalists that they won’t bow to GOP and industry attacks on several other new or looming Clean Air Act rules, such as upcoming power plant air toxics standards.
Obama stunned environmentalists last week when he shelved EPA plans to toughen 2008 ozone standards.
His decision came weeks after EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson called tougher standards a key public health goal and said the Bush-era rules may not be “legally defensible.”
An array of major business groups – such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Petroleum Institute – had appealed directly to the White House to scuttle EPA’s plan, alleging it would hinder job creation.
But White House officials insisted their decision wasn’t based on politics or industry pressure. They said the rule would be reconsidered in 2013, when fresher science can inform the issue.
Obama, in announcing the ozone decision Friday, cited the need to reduce regulatory burdens and uncertainty, especially during the economic recovery.
He also suggested that the ozone rule was a special case.
“Work is already under way to update a 2006 review of the science that will result in the reconsideration of the ozone standard in 2013,” Obama said in a statement Friday. “Ultimately, I did not support asking state and local governments to begin implementing a new standard that will soon be reconsidered.”
