Scientists seek smog reduction

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal scientists want to tighten smog standards, a step that would allow tens of millions of Americans to breathe easier. The plan also would run head-on into President Bush's hopes of weaning Americans from gasoline by using more smog-producing ethanol.
Environmental Protection Agency scientists today will say that tougher standards "would provide greater health protection for sensitive groups, including asthmatic children and other people with lung disease, healthy children and older adults -- especially those active outdoors, and outdoor workers."
Nearly 160 million people now breathe illegal levels of ozone pollution -- smog -- mostly in and around major cities in California and the East.
What the scientists will recommend has stirred controversy within EPA, said a senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak about the subject.
EPA staff members have felt they were under pressure from administration officials, including people at the White House, not to give a specific recommendation for tightening the standard, the official said.
Bush, in his State of the Union speech last week, urged Americans to reduce gasoline consumption by 20 percent over 10 years by substituting alternative fuels, mainly ethanol.
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