# EPA Delays Climate Change Rules (but "Still Committed" to them)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epa-delays-climate-change-rules-but-still-committed-to-them/596821>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [September 19, 2011, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epa-delays-climate-change-rules-but-still-committed-to-them/596821 "2011-09-19T13:45:30Z")\
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**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epa-delays-climate-change-rules-but-still-committed-to-them/596821/1 "2011-09-19T13:45:30Z")

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Which prompted one [blogger to quip](http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/09/16/321242/white-house-delays-epa-co2-standards-but-is-still-very-much-committed-to-them/), “The White House is still “very much committed” to greenhouse gas reductions the way NBC was ‘Committed to Keeping Conan O’Brien’ on the network in January 2010. Too harsh? Just wait and see.”

So the story is:

> [@](#):
>
> The Environmental Protection Agency sought to quell concerns Thursday that climate change regulations will face the same fate as an ozone rule that the White House scuttled this month.
> 
> EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said Wednesday that the agency would miss an end-of-September deadline to propose greenhouse gas standards for power plants, but insisted the rules are still on track.
> 
> She told San Francisco radio station KQED on Thursday that the agency will “absolutely” continue moving ahead with the standards. EPA officials say they will announce a new schedule shortly.
> 
> EPA is seeking to rebut the notion that the delay stems from White House or other influences outside the agency. Jackson told KQED that the delay was “not at all” a political decision, while spokeswoman Betsaida Alcantara told E2 that “we are very much committed to proposing the standards.”

Normally I’d be inclined to take the EPA at their word that the delay is not motivated by the White House, or by political concerns. The blogger I link to, however, suggests that in combination with the previous move two weeks ago by the White House to kill an ozone rule, this move presages the eventual CO[sub]2[/sub] standard as being toothless and ineffectual:

> [@](#):
>
> No, the NBC-Conan analogy isn’t really a good one because I do think the administration will issue CO[sub]2[/sub] standards. I’m just willing to bet that the Dynamic De-Regulators, Bill Daley and Cass Sunstein, will ensure that they are relatively meaningless, with virtually no impact on existing plants and thus no possibility of actually reducing electric utility greenhouse gas emissions.

Is this prediction anything more than a disappointed “green” fretting? I don’t think so, but I’m willing to be shown where I’m wrong.

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