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EPA Issuing Carbon-Limits Guidance Soon, Chief Says (Update2)
2010-09-14 22:17:26.621 GMT
(Adds Rockefeller spokeswoman's comment starting in the
fifth paragraph.)
By Kim Chipman and Simon Lomax
Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency will issue guidance soon that states and polluters may
use to implement the agency's new greenhouse-gas regulations,
Administrator Lisa Jackson said.
The guidelines will ensure that complying with the rules
"is practical and is manageable," Jackson said today at a
conference in Washington celebrating the 40th anniversary of the
Clean Air Act.
The EPA is using the 1970 law to establish national limits
on carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases implicated in climate
change. The first phase is set to start Jan. 2. Lawmakers led by
Senator Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, want to
postpone EPA action, saying the rules will hurt businesses and
consumers grappling with a sluggish economy.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said
today that he would schedule a vote on Rockefeller's bill
"before we leave here."
Rockefeller is "aggressively pursuing" a two-year delay
of the greenhouse-gas regulations for industrial sources such as
power plants because "the unelected EPA" shouldn't get ahead
of Congress, Jamie Smith, the senator's communications director,
said in an e-mail.
The American Chemistry Council and the American Petroleum
Institute urged senators today to delay greenhouse-gas
regulations for power plants, refineries and factories for as
long as three years.
The Senate Appropriations Committee overseeing EPA's budget
should slow the agency's regulatory action to give Congress time
to find an alternate approach, the groups said in a letter to
the panel.
The committee today canceled a Sept. 16 hearing to consider
the agency's budget.
Obama Pledge
Legislation to cap carbon pollution passed the U.S. House
of Representatives in 2009 and then stalled in the Senate.
President Barack Obama pledged to move ahead on carbon
regulations through the agency should Congress fail to act.
Business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are
suing the EPA over the rules, saying the agency has no authority
to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.
The law has a 40-year record of defying critics who say
regulations to cut pollution damage the economy, Jackson said
today. She vowed to move forward on carbon rules.
"We aren't going to fall victim to another round of
trumped-up doomsday predictions," said Jackson, 48. "We have
four decades of evidence that the choice between our environment
and our economy is a false choice."
She said one of the EPA's guiding principles in
establishing rules based on the Clean Air Act is to "set the
standards that make the most sense" and not burden small
businesses.
For Related News and Information:
Carbon Markets: EMIS <GO>
Top Environmental Markets News: TOP ENV <GO>
News About the EPA: NI EPA <GO>
--With assistance from Simon Lomax, Lisa Lerer and Jim Snyder in
Washington. Editors: Larry Liebert, Steve Geimann
To contact the reporter on this story:
Kim Chipman in Washington at +1-202-624-1927 or
Kchipman@bloomberg.net;
Simon Lomax in Washington D.C. at +1-202-654-4305 or
slomax@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Larry Liebert at +1-202-624-1936 or
LLiebert@bloomberg.net.
