"We will be responding shortly," Jackson told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee when asked about a letter sent last week by Michigan Rep. John Dingell and 26 other House Democrats. "We have made no determination."
Dingell and the other Democrats wrote to Jackson on Friday asking the EPA to extend by 60 days the comment period on the agency's pending air toxics rule for utilities, which is aimed at cutting mercury and other pollutants.
They said the rule is "unparalleled in its size and scope" for an air toxics rule, and "presents a set of new regulations with possible wide-reaching impacts on the way our country generates and consumes electricity."
The EPA is under a court order to issue the final rule by November, but the Democrats said the extension of the comment period would be consistent with the consent decree, in which "the court provides that EPA may modify the rulemaking process beyond the November deadline by providing notice and reasons for a modification."
John Walke, clean air director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, called the requested delay "unnecessary and far more time than the law requires," adding that extending the comment period until September would threaten the EPA's ability to satisfy its November deadline. NRDC is a litigant in the lawsuit over the rule.
Delaying the final rule is "certainly the aim of utility industry critics of EPA's safeguards," Walke said. "That should not be Administrator Jackson's goal, and she should not grant any extension if she concludes it would make it any more difficult or impossible to meet her court-ordered deadline."
The utility MACT regulation has sparked outcry among some members of the utility industry - particularly those that rely heavily on coal - who argue the rules could cause electricity price spikes and job losses.
But some utilities that rely less on coal are urging the EPA to forge ahead. The Clean Energy Group - which represents utilities including Constellation Energy, Exelon Corp., PG&E Corp. and others - says the agency should stay on schedule to give industry certainty.
"Companies have begun to prepare for a 2015 compliance deadline, and the electric power markets are factoring in the capital expenditures that will be required to comply with the rule," the group said in a letter sent Wednesday to Jackson. "Any delay would threaten to undermine those decisions."
