EPA to move on emissions as Congress stalls

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will formally declare that greenhouse gases endanger human health Monday, allowing President Barack Obama to show action as a major climate change summit opened in Copenhagen.

The EPA finding will allow it to regulate planet-warming gases even without legislation in the U.S. Congress, and will inject some optimism into the two-week global meeting on controlling climate change in the Danish capital.

Obama, who has made fighting climate change one of his top priorities, plans to attend the conference late next week, but there had been fears he would arrive almost empty handed as climate legislation has stalled in Congress.

The EPA said it would make the announcement at 1:15 p.m.

EST (1815 GMT).

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson told Reuters last month the endangerment finding was being considered by the White House's Office of Management and Budget and the agency was hoping for an expedited review.

The Obama administration has always said it prefers legislation over action by the EPA.

But to prod business to support efforts in Congress, and to show the world Washington is taking action on climate change, the administration has also pressed the EPA to take early steps on regulating greenhouse gases.

SENATE CLIMATE BILL

The climate bill has been delayed in the Senate by a debate over a sweeping reform of U.S. healthcare, but lawmakers hope to pass a bill in the spring. Climate legislation passed narrowly in the House of Representatives in June.

One business group was quick to criticize the EPA for endangering the U.S. economic recovery even before its announcement.

"EPA is moving forward with an agenda that will put additional burdens on manufacturers, cost jobs and drive up the price of energy," said Keith McCoy, Vice President of Energy and Resources Policy at the National Association of Manufacturers.

Along with its final endangerment finding, the EPA also sent the Office of Management and Budget the agency's final finding on whether cars and trucks "cause or contribute to that pollution," Jackson said last month.

That ruling could significant implications for the country's struggling auto sector.

Jackson said the government was facing a "hard deadline" of next March to let automakers know of any required increases in fuel economy standards that would affect vehicles built for the 2012 model year.

She said the EPA received more than 300,000 comments on its initial proposed public health endangerment and vehicle pollution findings that were issued last April.

Any final endangerment finding would be open for public review.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner and Roberta Rampton; Editing by Simon Denyer and David Storey)

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