The Environmental Protection Agency is already facing a war on multiple fronts as it works to review its smog standards this year. Environmentalists have vowed to fight to get the standards as low as possible to get maximum health benefits, while industry groups have been lining up to fight what they say is the most costly environmental regulation to come out of the administration.

And now Eric Cantor's upset loss has put one of the ozone rule's congressional critics—House Whip and presumed next Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy—in position to keep fighting it from the top.

EPA by December will propose a revision to its regulation for ground-level ozone—or smog—that is linked to asthma and other respiratory problems. It's part of the regular review of its air-quality standards required under the Clean Air Act, and the agency is expected to lower the standard from the 75 parts-per-billion level set under the George W. Bush administration.

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