| The long road to EPA climate regulations | |
| Date | Event |
| April 1998 | Responding to House Republicans, EPA general counsel Jonathan Cannon writes a memo that finds power plant CO2 emissions can be regulated under the Clean Air Act. |
| October 1999 | The International Center for Technology Assessment (ICTA) and 19 other groups cite Cannon's memo in petitioning EPA to regulate greenhouse gases from new motor vehicles. |
| March 2001 | President Bush reverses campaign pledge to regulate power plant CO2 emissions in a letter to Republican senators. |
| August 2003 | EPA rejects ICTA petition; general counsel Robert Fabricant writes new EPA opinion on GHG emissions, reversing Cannon memo. |
| July 2005 | U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rules in favor of Bush administration's decision to reject ICTA petition. |
| April 2007 | Supreme Court reverses D.C. Circuit opinion, orders EPA to begin analysis of whether CO2 is a pollutant. |
| May 2007 | Bush issues executive order for EPA to begin writing greenhouse gas regulations with coordination among other government agencies. |
| December 2007-February 2008 | White House abandons plan to issue EPA climate regulations following passage of new energy law with fuel economy standards. |
| March 27, 2008 | EPA's Johnson writes Reps. John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas), explaining his revised plan to only produce an "advanced notice of proposed rulemaking." |
| April 16, 2008 | Bush calls for freeze on U.S. heat-trapping pollution by 2025. Quoting Dingell, Bush says he wants Congress to find a way out of the "glorious mess" if climate rules are written under the Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act. |
| June 20, 2008 | White House lawyers bring internal EPA documents for House Democratic and GOP staffers to review, following unanimous April vote to subpoena the materials. |
| July 24, 2008 | Senate Republicans boycott subpoena vote in Environment and Public Works Committee. White House lawyers bring up documents anyway for committee staff and senators to review. |
| July 30, 2008 | Six-month public comment period begins as EPA's "advanced notice of proposed rulemaking" gets published in the Federal Register. |
| Timeline by Darren Samuelsohn. | |
