EPA to delay requirement for carbon dioxide emission permits

Industrial facilities that emit carbon dioxide to the atmosphere will not have to get a permit allowing that pollution until at least next year.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency made that announcement Monday in a statement formally announcing its intention to phase in regulation of carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act.

"This is a common sense plan for phasing in the protections of the Clean Air Act. It gives large facilities the time they need to innovate, governments the time to prepare to cut greenhouse gases, and it ensures that we don't push this problem off to our children and grandchildren," EPA administrator Lisa P. Jackson said.

The statement also indicates that emission limits on motor vehicles are not expected to go into effect before January 2011 at the earliest.

The announcement makes clear that emission limits will come into effect only after the agency promulgates final regulations.

One of those regulations, which would impact the amount of greenhouse gases allowed to be emitted by motor vehicle engines, is expected to be completed in the near future.

Another, aimed at large industrial facilities, is in development. No draft regulation affecting those pollution sources has been released.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that EPA has the authority under the Clean Air Act to impose limits on carbon dioxide pollution of the atmosphere. However, the administration of former President George W. Bush never acted on that court order. The agency, in fall 2008, said it would not regulate carbon dioxide emissions.

The Obama administration announced last year that EPA would begin efforts to limit emission of heat-trapping gases.

Monday's announcement is the last step in EPA's effort to reverse the Bush administration's decision to sidestep the issue.

Carbon dioxide is one of the major greenhouse gases thought to be causing global warming.

President Obama has indicated that he would prefer legislation addressing the issue of greenhouse gas limits, and the U.S. House of Representatives passed an energy bill that would impose a "cap and trade" system of pollution permits last autumn. But that measure is stalled in the U.S. Senate.