ASSAILED by the right, Barack Obama .iYsocked it to the left on September 2nd, by backtracking on a new rule to mitigate air pollution. As proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency—a hate object to many Republicans-the rule would have reduced ambient ozone, a toxic gas created by power-plant emissions and exhaust fumes, to less deadly levels than America currently permits. According to the epa, this would by 2020 have saved up to 12,000 lives and 2.5m working days and school days lost to the toxic effect of ozone on American lungs each year. It would also have cost polluters and government up to $90 billion per year-a toll that, in hard times, Mr Obama felt unable to levy.
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