The Environmental Protection Agency will miss an end-of-month target for proposing greenhouse gas regulations for power plants, the head of the EPA said on Wednesday.
The administration of President Barack Obama is under pressure from business to cut environmental regulation that critics say is hurting the economy, and last week Obama backtracked on smog plans.
The EPA is working on plans to limit greenhouse gases from power plants and oil refineries, and it had been targeting releasing some utility-focused proposals on September 30.
“Greenhouse gases for power plants is first on the docket,” EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said on the sidelines of an event in San Francisco. “Although we are not going to make the date at the end of the month, we are still working and will be shortly announcing a new schedule.”
The EPA also is working on the Mercury Air and Toxics Standards, the first national standards for mercury and acid gases from power plants. “We are still intending to finalize that ruling in November,” she said.
A separate set of standards for boiler emissions, called Maximum Achievable Control Technology, have been stayed and the agency plans to announce next steps in October, an agency spokeswoman said.
(Reporting by Peter Henderson; editing by Mohammad Zargham)
