ABC News:
The Obama administration announced today it will use the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory power to set limits on carbon dioxide emissions from factories, power plants and refineries, a decision which likely sets the stage for another partisan battle.
The EPA’s mandate will be effective in January, 2011 and comes on the heels of its finding late last year on the dangers of greenhouse gases.
The move gives EPA authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Oregon, and Wyoming, and it will disapprove part of Texas’ Clean Air Act permit program.
With today’s action, power plants and oil refineries will have to obtain federal permits that cap their greenhouse gas emissions.
Republicans charge these new greenhouse gas rules will stifle businesses and kill jobs.
The administration is trying to “regulate what they have been unable to legislate,” said Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, the Republican set to take over the House Energy and Commerce Committee in January. “This Christmas surprise is nothing short of a backdoor attempt to implement their failed job-killing cap-and-trade scheme.”
The rest here.