Late last month, eight U.S. Senators - all Democrats - sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson challenging the agency's authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions without Congressional approval.  The group of liberal coal-state Senators, led by West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller, wants to suspend EPA greenhouse gas regulation until Congress can figure whether (and if so how) to regulate energy emissions.  They say such an important policy decision that will impact "workers, industries, taxpayers and economic interests" in their respective states should be made by those elected to represent those interests, not be done "in isolation by a federal environmental agency."

Contrast the actions of these eight Democrats with our state's "Republican" Attorney General Rob McKenna, who filed a lawsuit against the EPA for not doing enough to address global warming, and was the only Republican to sign onto this letter demanding the EPA regulate greenhouse gases back in 2008.

McKenna got what he wanted.  The Wall Street Journal writes that the EPA's proposed regulations are so "destructive and unpopular that even she [EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson] is backing off."  Jackson is trying to placate the coal-state Senators by promising the EPA will ease into the carbon crackdown, assuring them coal-fired power plants won't really have to worry about the profit killing regs until 2013.  Of course, that is small consolation given Jackson's bombshell revelation "that the EPA plans to raise the carbon regulation threshold even higher than the 25,000 tons per year that her agency arbitrarily selected. According to the law she wants to invoke, regulation is mandated at 250 tons, which would sweep up farms, schools, restaurants, hospitals and other businesses."

So coal plants won't be the only ones with a regulatory noose around their necks...that fate will extend to most every business in every state (thanks Rob McKenna!)

The Hammer doesn't think that sounds like much of a retreat. 

At least business owners around the country can sleep better at night knowing eight Democrats are fighting to keep the EPA from regulating them out of business.  And then there is the state of Texas, which is defending its citizens by suing the EPA to stop them from implementing the devastating greenhouse gas regulations.  Too bad "Republican" AG Rob McKenna doesn't see fit to defend his state's citizens, instead supporting the EPA's job killing regulations in a desperate and pathetic attempt to pander to enviros he hopes will support his doomed bid for governor in 2012.