Get the lead in

Unbefuckinglievable.

The Bush administration is considering doing away with health standards that cut lead from gasoline, widely regarded as one of the nation's biggest clean-air accomplishments.

Battery makers, lead smelters, refiners all have lobbied the administration to do away with the Clean Air Act limits.

A preliminary staff review released by the Environmental Protection Agency this week acknowledged the possibility of dropping the health standards for lead air pollution. The agency says revoking those standards might be justified "given the significantly changed circumstances since lead was listed in 1976" as an air pollutant.

Changed circumstances? Is lead not a neurotoxin anymore or something?

No, wait, I checked. With the EPA. It still is:

Lead is a highly toxic metal that was used for many years in products found in and around our homes. Lead may cause a range of health effects, from behavioral problems and learning disabilities, to seizures and death. Children 6 years old and under are most at risk, because their bodies are growing quickly.

The AP story offers an example of the kind of things people say when you dilute sound public policy with bullshit politics.

Bill Wehrum, who heads the EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, said the agency is "committed to continuing to significantly reduce lead emissions in this country. That's what we're trying to figure out."

So the agency that's considering dropping the health standards for lead air pollution is committed to significantly reducing lead emissions. Being that dropping those standards will have the opposite effect of the agency's stated goal, I can only assume that what the EPA is "trying to figure out" is how to reduce lead emissions while keeping the asses of the administration's campaign donors sufficiently slathered with saliva.

Hmm, that is a tough one.

If it's one or the other, I don't think I need to tell you which this administration will choose.