Trump administration's climate debate on hold

The other signs:

• The administration released in November a congressionally mandated report confirming human-influenced climate change.
• EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said in recent congressional testimony he plans to issue a rule cutting carbon emissions from power plants, which is replacing a more sweeping such rule President Obama issued. The fact he's issuing a replacement at all is a subtle but clear sign the agency isn't going to review a 2009 scientific finding Obama's EPA issued that concluded greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. The finding is the scientific and legal underpinning of most climate-related regulations.

Go deeper:

• The E&E story that initially broke the news of the planned debate back in June.
• A Wall Street Journal opinion piece in April by a former Obama administration energy official who initially floated the idea.