The move follows a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that carbon emissions are pollutants under the federal Clean Air Act, making it possible for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate them.

The EPA guidance aims to help big industry, such as power plants and steel manufacturers, figure out the best options for cutting back on pollutants in line with more stringent regulations that come into effect on January 2, 2011.

"This is a tool that has worked for the Clean Air Act for 30 years," said EPA assistant administrator Gina McCarthy. "There is nothing groundbreaking about this."

However, Rachel Cleetus, climate economist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, praised the announcement as a "critical first step in helping to reduce US global warming emissions and protecting public health and welfare."

The Pew Center on Global Climate Change said the guidance "goes a long way to making sure that large new industrial facilities employ state of the art technologies that will deliver important long term economic and environmental benefits."

President Barack Obama's Republican foes have opposed efforts by the government to impose new regulations to control greenhouse emissions, saying it would hamper business and as the economy recovers from the worst economic crisis in decades.

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