WASHINGTON, June 14 (Reuters) – With a Senate vote on
President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Environmental
Protection Agency still in limbo, speculation is rising about
the fate of a proposed emissions rule for new power plants that
was scheduled to have been finished in April.

Obama nominated Gina McCarthy, now the EPA’s top air and
radiation official, to head the agency in March. The Senate
Environment and Public Works panel backed her a month ago.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Delays in approval of more natural gas export projects are costing U.S. companies millions of dollars a day and giving a leg up to rival countries also looking to boost exports, the chief of Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Thursday.

The comments by Exxon’s Rex Tillerson came hours after new U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz told lawmakers he hopes to “expeditiously” begin evaluating the more than a dozen applications awaiting approval to export liquefied natural gas (LNG).