"GRANTS PASS, Ore. – Under pressure from some members of Congress, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is easing up on regulating global warming pollution from facilities that burn biomass for energy.

The agency said Wednesday it needs more time to figure out whether biomass -- including farm waste, sawmill scraps and forest thinnings -- is really a green fuel.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson notified members of Congress who had complained that new rules regulating industrial carbon dioxide emissions would make it hard to develop new biomass energy plants they see as job creators and part of a national green energy strategy."

Jeff Barnard reports for the Associated Press January 12, 2011. [2]