The Bush administration, which has resisted regulating carbon dioxide emissions, this spring will propose rules that could affect everything from vehicles to power plants and oil refineries, the top U.S. environmental official told Congress on Thursday.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson said the agency will issue proposed rules “later this spring” on “the specific effects of climate change and potential regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from stationary and mobile sources.”

Johnson’s letter to congressional leaders was a response to a landmark 2007 ruling by the Supreme Court that the EPA must reconsider its 2003 refusal to regulate carbon-dioxide emissions from new cars and trucks under the Clean Air Act.

Johnson’s letter sets in motion a long process of seeking comments from industry and the public, with at least two chances to change course before final rules are issued.

Democrats accused the White House of stalling to allow U.S. President George W. Bush to slip out of the Oval Office before any rules could take effect. Bush’s term will end in January 2009, and it’s unlikely that rules could be finalized by then.

“Instead of action, we get more foot-dragging,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, chairman of the Senate Environment Committee, which has approved climate change legislation which could see debate by the full Senate as early as June.

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