You might not be surprised that any misguided politician who blithely continues to challenge scientific evidence of global warming, or who recklessly advocates unrestricted drilling for oil in national wildlife refuges, would treat environmental protection with contemptuous disregard.

But when the man initially perceived as eco-friendly, who was elected under the guise of hope and change, suddenly decides companies should be allowed to pollute as long as they create jobs, it’s apparent just how desperate times have become.

President Barack Obama’s recent decision to loosen government smog standards reflects a disappointing wind shift, in which he caved in to business interests for politically expedient purposes.

The proposed smog standard he scrubbed would have cost between $19 billion and $90 billion. By the way, this year the United States will spend about $159 billion to continue fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There’s no question factories would operate more profitably if they didn’t have to limit toxins spewing from their smokestacks. It’s also a lot cheaper – in the short run, at least – to install phony automobile airbags, sell baby formula made with inexpensive but poisonous melamine instead of milk, or to use inferior grades of concrete and steel to build highway bridges and skyscrapers.

That’s why we have government regulation — not to punish factory owners, but to protect the populace.

A federal report released this week about last year’s disastrous BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico put the blame in large part on poor government oversight.

The debacle might never have happened, and certainly would have been less horrific, if government officials hadn’t overlooked fundamental flaws in the drilling operation and if the oil company hadn’t thumbed its nose at various federal agencies.

This is somewhat off-topic, but we also don’t need any further reminder of the consequence of inadequate oversight than the fiscal mess created by the banking industry and Wall Street Shylocks.

Think about that whenever tea partiers and Libertarians caterwaul about how government controls are turning America into a socialist state.

To be sure, 9.1 percent unemployment is devastating, but putting us all at risk by relaxing smog standards is worse.

The proposed new regulation would have limited concentrations of ground-level ozone, the principal component of smog, formed by emissions from cars, power and chemical plants and refineries. Smog can cause asthma and other lung disorders.

In a published report Thomas Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, called the president’s decision “an enormous victory for America’s job creators, the right decision by the president and one that will help reduce the uncertainty facing businesses.”

The normally pro-Obama group MoveOn.org lambasted the president in a prepared statement.

“Many MoveOn members are wondering today how they can ever work for President Obama’s re-election, or make the case for him to their neighbors, when he does something like this, after extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich and giving in to tea party demands on the debt deal,” said Justin Ruben, the group’s executive director.

And the American Lung Association, which had sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over lax smog standards adopted by then-President George W. Bush, and then dropped the litigation when Obama initially imposed stricter limits, now says it will resume its legal fight.

I wonder if friends-of-the-court briefs supporting Obama’s new position will be filed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who doesn’t think global warming is a problem and supports teaching creationism; or by Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, who wants to see oil drills from sea to shining sea, and who just this week made a fool of herself by repeating a ridiculous claim that the immunization of a young girl against the human papilloma virus, a leading cause of cervical cancer, actually caused “mental retardation.”

Maybe President Obama, who has demonstrated an affinity for shifting his position with changing political winds, will have a change of heart.

We’d all breathe a little easier.