Industry representatives have repeatedly visited the White House to discuss pending regulation of coal ash, raising suspicions that industry may be influencing the rule. In December, amid these meetings, EPA announced it was backing away from its earlier pledge to propose coal ash regulations by the end of 2009.

Hundreds of regulations may not officially have the force and effect of law because rulemaking agencies have not performed a simple procedural task, according to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report issued last week.

Under the Congressional Review Act, a 1996 law that essentially gives Congress a window of opportunity to veto agency regulations, agencies must submit to Congress and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) copies of new final regulations.

As the Washington Post reports today, EPA is temporarily delaying a decision to regulate coal ash, a toxic byproduct formed when smokestack scrubbers capture pollutants otherwise destined for the air. Today is the one-year anniversary of a major coal ash spill that sent a billion gallons of toxic goo cascading across hundreds of acres of land in eastern Tennessee.

In another of The New York Times’ startling articles on the state of U.S. waters, Charles Duhigg reports on the myriad chemicals polluting drinking water supplies and regulators’ inability to manage them.