The Washington Post has revealed the Environmental Protection Agency weakened a key section of its new smog rules after a last minute intervention by President Bush. The rules deal with the level of protection given to wildlife, parks and other open areas from smog. The EPA’s initially proposed limits were already less restrictive than government scientists had recommended. But according to newly disclosed documents, President Bush ordered the EPA to increase its allowed smog limits even further. The intervention was so last-minute that it forced the EPA to delay its announcement of the new rules by five hours. To accommodate the weakened regulations, government lawyers rushed to change public welfare guidelines set by previous submissions to the Supreme Court. The National Resources Defense Council calls the White House intervention “unprecedented and unlawful.”