National Tribal Air Association

U.S. EPA appears to be delaying a proposal for cutting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants until sometime in February, an agency spokesman confirmed yesterday.

"EPA is on track to propose GHG standards for new power plants early this year," the agency said in a statement. "We continue to work with OMB [Office of Management and Budget] through the interagency review process and will issue the proposal when that review is complete."

The agency had planned to issue its proposed rule by today. It sent the rule to the White House Office of Management and Budget last November, and EPA air chief Gina McCarthy said as recently as two weeks ago that the agency was still on track to propose the rule by the end of this month.

Earlier yesterday, McCarthy told the 2012 Energy, Utility and Environment Conference in Phoenix that the proposal would be released in February, according to a report by Bloomberg BNA.

EPA agreed to issue new limits for new or modified power plants in a settlement it reached with environmentalists in late 2010.

The greenhouse gas standards have become highly politicized, as Republicans both in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail have taken to criticizing them as potential industry crushers.

EPA was originally supposed to have the limits proposed last summer and finalized this May, but the agency has repeatedly fallen behind that schedule.

Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, said it remains unclear what is holding up the proposal but noted that this is "yet another slip."

"This may be a very minimal delay," he said. "If so, we would all rather they take slightly more time and get it right. But this pattern of delay makes everyone at least somewhat apprehensive."

Potential critics of the proposal said politics may be playing a hand in the delay as President Obama's re-election bid ramps up.

Jeff Holmstead of Bracewell & Giuliani, who was EPA air chief during George W. Bush's administration, said the limits could very likely put a burden on coal plant operators in coal-rich states like Ohio and Pennsylvania -- states that could prove pivotal to Obama's re-election prospects.

"Do you really want to be dogged with that issue?" Holmstead said.

Holmstead added that even if EPA does release the proposal, there is "no way" they can finalize the rule before the November election.