GOP Believes EPA Administrator Delayed Climate Ruling for Reasons Beyond Public Policy

The Obama Administration's environmental agenda is gaining ground as it hopes to reach its goals for 2020. But Republicans believe that EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy delayed a climate rule to favor Democrats in the midterm elections.

Republican Senator James Inhofe from Oklahoma wrote a letter to Gina McCarthy to question the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to submit their latest regulation limiting carbon dioxide emission two months after it was released to the public. McCarthy said that the EPA worked very hard to get the rules published in the Federal Register, but a backup caused the delay.

Now the timing of the submission will not allow Republican lawmakers to force a vote to repeal its provisions until January 2015, which is two months after the midterm elections. Senator Inhofe believes this was a strategy to favor the Democrats in the elections because now the voters have no time to determine whether or not they support the regulations. If the Federal Register accepted the rules for publication as they were expected to, the American people would have six weeks to evaluate them and possibly use it as a decision for their upcoming vote.

"While the EPA thinks they are being cute, voters will see through this political fig leaf aimed at aiding vulnerable Democrats so they later help them enact their radical cap-and-trade agenda," said Jahan Wilcox, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, according to Fox News.

The EPA's ruling will impose strict limits on greenhouse gas emissions for new plants, which is most likely going to force plants to use carbon-capture technology. Republicans believe that this isn't fair because it will essentially handcuff the newer businesses. The EPA's 66-day delay is likely to perpetuate this.

However, McCarthy insists that the EPA immediately submitted the rules for publication and frequently checked in with the Federal Register to see when the process would be completed. Despite her claims, there is no evidence that the agency had asked the Register about the status of the process.