The EPA has been under pressure since a landmark 2007 ruling by the Supreme Court that federal pollution laws protecting human health force the agency to reconsider its refusal to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from new cars and trucks.

Lawmakers who saw drafts of the EPA's advanced notice said the agency will delay rule-making with long comment periods until President Bush leaves office in January 2009.

"After more than seven years, this administration is still not willing to make the hard choices to confront global warming," Sen. Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat and chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety, said in a release.

"All signs point to the fact the Bush administration will leave greenhouse regulation to the next president," an aide to a lawmaker in the House said by telephone.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican, said in a release, "The deliberate efforts to delay adherence to the Supreme Court's decision is reckless and irresponsible."

EPA spokesman Tim Lyons said the EPA's proposed rule-making that will be revealed later in the day is not a delay because acting on climate change "takes a lot of time, thought and analysis," without going into more details.

The EPA's delay is a win for some car-makers, electric utilities and oil refiners as it gives them time to prepare for changes in their products and plants to reduce emissions that could cost them billions of dollars.

Both presidential candidates say they support regulating carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for warming the planet. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner in New York and Tom Doggett in Washington; Editing by Christian Wiessner)