At the same time, it added fuel to criticism that President Bush has dragged his feet on the issue throughout his 7 1/2 years in office, avoiding a concerted government attack on global warming.
Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence, said: "The White House has taken an earnest attempt by their own climate experts to respond to the Supreme Court's mandate to address global warming pollution and turned it into a Frankenstein's monster."
Bill Kovacs, a U.S. Chamber of Commerce vice president, said the EPA staff's proposals were "an unprecedented power grab by unelected officials who want to stretch the application of the Clean Air Act into regulation of the entire economy."
Unwilling to commit
Bush returned Wednesday from Japan, where the Group of 8 summit of leading industrialized nations set a goal -- but not a binding commitment -- to cut emissions in half by 2050.
One day earlier, a former EPA official, Jason K. Burnett, said that Vice President Dick Cheney's office had worked to alter sworn congressional testimony provided by a federal official in January to play down global warming and head off regulation of greenhouse gases.
White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said in a written statement that the EPA staff proposal would have given the agency "unprecedented power affecting anyone who uses or produces energy -- from stores and manufacturing facilities to power plants, farmers, even schools, hospitals and apartment buildings." She said the EPA would have functioned "like a local planning and zoning board, with potentially devastating effects on our economy."
In a conference call with reporters, EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson said he would receive comments for 120 days on how the government should regulate greenhouse gases, a step that Joan Claybrook, president of the public-interest lobbying group Public Citizen, said would guarantee that "the issue will not be dealt with until a new administration comes to town."
"The interference of the White House in this process is unconscionable, and its decision to run out the clock rather than take action during its tenure in office is a disgrace," she said.
Interference denied
Despite the Supreme Court ruling, Johnson said the Clean Air Act was "the wrong tool for addressing greenhouse gases" because it would require the agency to set separate standards for a large number of industries, a process he said could take years to complete and lead to multiple court cases. Rather, he said, Congress should produce a legislative answer.
