The Bush administration ought to be on the side of greater transparency regarding toxic chemicals that companies use, store and release into the environment.

Since there is widespread belief that new rules of the federal Environmental Protection Agency are contrary to the principle of openness, Pennsylvania and 11 other states are right in challenging those rules.

The 12 states filed suit Wednesday to force the administration to reverse what they perceive to be the administration's weaker stance on environmental protection. It is to be hoped that the courts side with the states' opinion, even though the EPA, predictably, has contended that the rules change actually improves the Toxics Release Inventory Law.

People can justifiably ask how more secrecy regarding such chemicals could be in their best interests. The EPA contends it only wants to ease requirements on companies that can certify they do not release toxins to the environment.

"The EPA's new regulations rob . . . people across the country of their right to know about toxic dangers in their own backyards," said New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who said the weaker rules would leave off the hook 100 polluters in New York alone.

Meanwhile, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal contends that the EPA's action seriously undermines a 20-year program that required companies to report the amount of lead, mercury and other toxins they released.

"Polluters can release 10 times more toxins like lead and mercury without telling anyone," he said.

As national politics heat up leading to the 2008 presidential election, it's reasonable for people to ponder whether the politics of demonizing the Bush administration is at least partly behind the decision by the states to pursue the lawsuit. That is not beyond possibility.

But the burden is on the administration to prove that the new rules are not contrary to the public's interests. Americans who live and work near companies that handle toxic chemicals deserve as much peace of mind as possible.

Butler County residents can sympathize with the intent behind the lawsuit, especially Petrolia area residents who lived in fear after learning several years ago that toxic dumping decades ago had contaminated their water supplies.

There are many industries in Western Pennsylvania that have been guided by the rules that the EPA now wants to weaken, so this county has a stake in a rules change.

It would be reasonable for people across the nation to ask for their federal representatives' opinions of the rules changes, and for them to back up those opinions with facts.

The Bush administration might not be wrong regarding its current stance — that remains to be seen — but toxic-chemical issues should not be addressed with a lackadaisical attitude, as the states' lawsuit attests.

If there is an error, it ought to be on the side of caution, rather than irresponsibility.