Rep. Edward J. Markey is seeking to subpoena the EPA after the agency failed to turn over documents related to global warming.

Markey chairs the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, which cannot take up legislation but does have subpoena power. The committee will vote on issuing the subpoena at an April 2 meeting.

Markey, D-Mass., wants the EPA to provide information about its delayed response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Massachusetts v. EPA. In April 2007, the court ruled that carbon dioxide was a pollutant under the Clean Air Act and required the EPA to evaluate possible rules to control greenhouse gases.

While the court’s decision pertained to emissions from cars and trucks, an EPA decision to limit greenhouse gases could also have sweeping impact on other sectors of the economy.

The EPA had announced plans to respond to the court decision by the end of last year, but changed course after the president signed a new comprehensive energy law (PL 110-140). EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson said he needed time to review the law’s new mandates on fuel economy and biofuels, both of which indirectly affect greenhouse gas emissions.

Markey and other Democrats are rejecting these grounds for delay. For several months, Markey has been seeking documents including a draft proposal to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that the EPA reportedly completed last year.

“Johnson’s strategy on producing these documents is the same as his strategy to deal with global warming: delay, deny and distract,” Markey said.

Johnson told Markey in a March 11 letter that this document was “in draft form and does not reflect the agency’s final thinking.” He said failure to release it was “consistent with the executive branch’s long-standing practice regarding requests for documents related to preliminary rulemaking activities.”

Johnson also announced Thursday that the agency would seek public comment on the topic through an advance notice of proposed rulemaking this spring. He did not provide a date for how soon the agency might eventually respond to the court decision.

“Rather than rushing to judgment on a single issue, this approach allows us to examine all the potential effects of a decision with the benefit of the public’s insight,” Johnson wrote in a letter to Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and James M. Inhofe, R-Okla.

EPA spokesman Jonathan Shradar said it was a “historic move” for the administrator to seek comment on greenhouse gas regulations. The EPA will “review and respond appropriately” to any request by Markey’s panel, he said.

But Rep. Henry A. Waxman called the announcement of the public-comment period “a transparent delaying tactic and a major reversal of EPA’s position.”

Waxman, D-Calif., who chairs the House Oversight and Investigations Committee, is also seeking documents on the EPA’s decision to deny California a waiver that would allow state-level controls on greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles. Waxman issued a subpoena for the documents earlier this month.