The Obama administration is abandoning its plan to
immediately tighten air quality rules nationwide to cut reduce emissions of
smog-causing chemicals after an intense lobbying campaign by industry, which
said the new rule would cost billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of
jobs, officials said Friday.

The Environmental Protection Agency, following the
recommendation of its scientific advisers, had proposed lowering the so-called
ozone standard from that set by the Bush administration to a new stricter
standard that would have thrown hundreds of American counties out of compliance
with the Clean Air Act. It would have required a major effort by state and
local officials, as well as new emissions controls by industries and
agriculture across the country.

The more lenient Bush administration standard from 2006
will remain in place until a scheduled reconsideration of acceptable pollution
limits in 2013, officials indicated Friday.

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