Yesterday, we repeated an Associated Press report which said that President Obama was banding with the GOP to force the EPA to walk the plank — or, well, looking to compromise with the GOP by curtailing EPA's regulatory powers as part of budget negotiations.

Shows what we get for trusting the AP. The White House today declared the rumors of pernicious overcompromising with the GOP — on this matter, at least — to be false. (The Grist writer in question has since been keelhauled.) The administration opposes the riders that would block or limit the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases, said a spokesperson.

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None of this stopped a congressional aide from firing a shot across the the administration's starboard bow:

We will not accept any EPA riders on the [budget bill], despite the fact the White House has been MIA on this fight — they are sitting back expecting Senate Democrats to carry the water to defend their own agency.

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