WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Loose regulation, now blamed for ills ranging from the U.S. financial crisis to imports of tainted Chinese goods, is drawing increasing fire from opponents of the Bush administration’s environment program.

U.S. President George W. Bush stands by as the new Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson is sworn in at EPA headquarters in Washington, May 23, 2005. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

In the final months of President George W. Bush’s two terms in office, criticism about the use of regulation instead of legislation to craft environmental policy has grown louder.

That is amplified by the campaign for the U.S. presidential election on November 4, with both Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama staking out environmental positions at odds with the current administration.

The environment is important to U.S. voters but ranks far below their top concern, the economy and jobs, according to a sampling on PollingReport.com.

A CNN poll in July found 66 percent said the environment was important or very important in choosing a president, compared with 93 percent who said the same about the economy.

On a broad range of environmental issues -- climate-warming carbon emissions, protecting endangered species, clean air and water preservation, the cleanup of toxic pollution -- opponents in and out of government have taken aim at the White House for failing to tighten some rules and loosening others.

“The Bush administration’s long-standing efforts to weaken environmental regulations to benefit narrow special interests come with a terrible cost,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who has led the charge.

“If you can’t breathe because the air is polluted, you can’t go to work. If your kids can’t breathe, they can’t go to school.”

Frank O’Donnell, of the advocacy group Clean Air Watch, agreed, saying that “the hallmark of Bush administration policy on the environment is a lack of regulation.”

One Capitol Hill staffer familiar with legislation on global warming accused the Bush administration of actively seeking to undermine measures to limit greenhouse gas emissions that spur climate change.

“They were the biggest obstacle to progress,” the staffer said. “They did everything possible to ensure that nothing would happen.”

James Connaughton, who heads the White House Council on Environmental Quality, vehemently disagreed, saying the Bush administration has equaled or exceeded the environmental accomplishments of its predecessors, sometimes through regulation and other times by the use of incentives.

Connaughton took aim at states, notably California, for setting high environmental standards but failing to meet them. He specifically faulted Congress for failing to reinstate the Clean Air Interstate Rule, which would have curbed power plant pollution, after a federal appeals court rejected it in July.

EMISSIONS AND POLAR BEARS

Bush promised to regulate carbon emissions when he ran for president in 2000 but quickly reversed course once in the White House, saying any mandatory cap on greenhouse gases would cost U.S. jobs and give an unfair advantage to fast-developing economies like China and India.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in April 2007 that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had the power to regulate greenhouse gases as pollutants if they posed a danger to human health.

The EPA delayed a decision on the so-called endangerment finding, making it highly likely that any regulatory action will be left to Obama or McCain when the winner of November’s election takes office in January.

The Bush administration’s record on designating endangered species has drawn widespread scorn from conservation groups.

So far, it has listed 58 species under the Endangered Species Act, compared with 522 under President Bill Clinton and 231 under President George H.W. Bush, the current president’s father, who served only one term in office.

For one high-profile species, the polar bear, the Bush administration waited until May 14, one day before a court-ordered deadline, to list the big white bears as threatened by climate change.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said then that the listing would not curb climate change. He noted he was taking administrative and regulatory action to make sure the decision was not “abused to make global warming policy.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce praised the decision, calling it a “common sense balancing” between business and environmental concerns.

At a hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on September 24, Boxer accused the Bush administration of trying to undermine the mission of the EPA and the Interior Department to protect public health and the environment.

(Editing by John O’Callaghan)