EPA standard is in public’s interest

Re “Ozone alert,” editorial, March 17

Readers of The Times may have wondered if they were reading the views of the editorial board or the talking points of an environmental lobbyist. After all, both consider the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s creation of the most stringent eight-hour standard for ozone in our nation’s history an outrage only because it occurred during President Bush’s term.

The fact is I strengthened the ozone standard as required by the Clean Air Act and as supported by the full breadth of the most recent scientific evidence.

And just as President Clinton’s EPA administrator before me, I strengthened the secondary standard for welfare to the same level of protection as the human health standard.

Apparently, because Bush also preferred this method of cleaning our air, The Times saw it as an opportunity to blindly condemn the stronger standard.

When Clinton’s EPA administrator issued the last ozone standard in 1997, your paper hailed the decision as “a breath of fresh air.”

Since I tightened that standard even further, what was true then should be true now.

I would expect you to recognize this as the significant improvement in public health that it is, but as you say in your editorial, “why bother.”

Stephen L. Johnson

Administrator

Environmental Protection

Agency

Washington