EPA Delays Greenhouse Gas Regulations

In December 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared greenhouse gases a threat to humans, thus bringing them under the regulatory authority of the agency under the Clean Air Act (see

EBN Jan. 2010). EPA had planned to begin regulating greenhouse gases from large stationary sources (those that emit more than 25,000 tons of gases a year) in 2010; a February 2010 letter to Congress from EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson noted that the agency is now pushing those plans back to at least 2011. The move comes after Congress and various industry groups, including the American Chemistry Council, voiced concerns that regulation could slow economic recovery.