The quote above is from Fred Upton, Republican congressperson from Michigan, who doesn't understand that a lot of workers like to get things off their desk before the holiday vacation:
The Environmental Protection Agency announced a timetable on Thursday for issuing rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and oil refineries, signaling a resolve to press ahead on such regulation even as it faces stiffening opposition in Congress.
The agency said it would propose performance standards for new and refurbished power plants next July, with final rules to be issued in May 2012. Proposed emissions standards for new oil refineries will be published next December, it said, with the final rules due in November 2012; rules for existing plants would come later. ...
Gina McCarthy, the assistant administrator for air and radiation, said the rules would be “cost-effective” but the agency declined to be more specific, saying only that the agency would consider the costs and benefits of available control technologies.
That left open the question of how much money the agency would demand that an industry spend to avoid emitting carbon dioxide. ...
In the conference call, Ms. McCarthy emphasized that the E.P.A. was not imposing a “cap-and-trade” system, a system that sets a ceiling on greenhouse gas pollution while allowing companies to trade permits, at a price that the market determines.
Approved last year in a House bill, cap-and-trade legislation died in the Senate this year. Later, opponents called it “cap and tax,” and it became a rallying cry for some midterm election candidates who were opposed to the expansion of government authority over industry and the economy.
via www.nytimes.com
The interesting thing will be how the EPA manages the rules to be cost-effective without economic incentive-based policy. The NYTimes speculates that it will be through an attempt at mandated energy efficiency.
