The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is having an identity crisis.

The name of the state's clean-air agency is fairly self-explanatory – instructive, even. And a quick glance at the TCEQ's mission statement confirms that the commission's goals include "clean air, clean water and the safe management of waste."

But the Commission on Environmental Quality has morphed into the Commission for Protecting Business Interests. The agency charged with clearing our polluted skies has become a leading opponent of tougher ozone standards aimed at protecting public health.

Scientific research shows that current limits could be making us sick. Medical groups and all 23 members of the Environmental Protection Agency's science panel agree that existing federal standards won't protect us from the lung-scarring effects of ozone.

Almost unbelievably, the TCEQ argues that EPA experts are wrong. Ozone increases our risk of suffering lung damage, asthma episodes and even heart attacks. But Texas' top clean-air officials assert that stricter ozone limits won't improve our health.

What's more, the Commission on Environmental Quality frets about the economic impact of clearing the air.

So in tune with business and industry is the TCEQ that business groups actually have borrowed language from state environmental officials and repeated it in letters to the EPA.

The Texas Association of Business and the Association of Electric Companies of Texas have found a reliable ally in the TCEQ. It's too bad that clean-air groups don't have an equally dependable advocate at the state level.

The good news for those of us who breathe North Texas' smoggy air is that federal law precludes the EPA from allowing costs to supersede scientific judgment. Unfortunately, our state doesn't abide by that principle.

The TCEQ's missteps cannot to be traced to a single wrong-headed official; the commission's current and former chairmen, its executive director and its chief engineer all have fought new pollution limits. The clean-air agency's apparent opposition to cleaner air reveals how far off-track this bastardized agency has veered.

If the TCEQ is committed to protecting business interests, perhaps that should be its new directive. Then state leaders could create an agency that actually focuses on environmental quality.