LA Times: Washington politics has played a key role in both the nation’s rush toward coal-fired energy and the current pullbacks and delays. During his 2000 run for the White House, George W. Bush promised to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant, curbing emissions that contribute to climate change. But he reversed course shortly after taking office in 2001, saying that Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy policy task force had advised against it. Bush campaign strategist and …