WASHINGTON (AP) – A high-ranking appointee resigned from the Environmental Protection Agency after concluding there was no more progress to be made on greenhouse gases under the Bush administration.

Jason Burnett, associate deputy administrator for about a year before his resignation took effect June 9, was the principal adviser on climate change issues to agency chief Stephen Johnson. He helped develop the EPA’s response to last year’s Supreme Court ruling that the agency had the authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

“I think that most people who have studied the Clean Air Act recognize the challenges posed by the Supreme Court case, but the nation is best served by confronting those challenges, not trying to delay the inevitable,” Burnett said in an interview Wednesday.

Burnett, a policy adviser at EPA who returned when Johnson appointed him associate deputy administrator, said he came back “to work through those challenges. We made as much progress as this administration wanted and when it became clear to me that no more progress could be made I decided it was time for me to move on,” Burnett said. “The choice this administration has made is to leave those challenges to the next.”

Asked to respond to Burnett’s comments, EPA spokesman Jonathan Shradar noted that Johnson has described this as among the most complex issues the agency has undertaken. “Investing thousands of hours and millions of dollars certainly does not suggest avoiding the issue,” Shradar said.

AP-ES-06-25-08 1748EDT