Amid EPA delays, greens question agency's priorities

The Environmental Protection Agency this week announced its intention to delay the release of two key air rules, raising questions among some clean-air advocates about whether the Obama EPA will become less aggressive now that Republicans have made significant gains in Congress.

The New York Times has a front-page story Friday morning on the issue.

“Now, the agency says, it needs until July 2011 to further analyze scientific and health studies of the smog rules and until April 2012 on the boiler regulation. Mr. Obama, having just cut a painful deal with Republicans intended to stimulate the economy, can ill afford to be seen as simultaneously throttling the fragile recovery by imposing a sheaf of expensive new environmental regulations that critics say will cost jobs,” the Times reports.

“The delays represent a marked departure from the first two years of the Obama presidency, when the E.P.A. moved quickly to reverse one Bush environmental policy after another. Administration officials now face the question of whether in their zeal to undo the Bush agenda they reached too far and provoked an unmanageable political backlash.”

In other news:

The Washington Post has a useful Q-and-A-style breakdown of what you need to know about the ongoing climate change talks in Cancun, Mexico. Friday is the final day of the two-week-long negotiations.

And Bloomberg reports on International Energy Agency estimates that new drilling in the Gulf of Mexico will likely be delayed by 12 to 18 months because of new Obama administration offshore drilling rules.