ANALYSIS-Toxic fish could help Obama hit 2020 climate goal

* EPA mercury rule seen next year

* Bernstein says EPA pollutant rules to shut coal plants

* Utilities may sue to slow or stop rules

By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON, July 26 (Reuters) - A proposed rule on mercury, a pollutant bad for fish and the people who eat too many of them, could help the Obama administration get near its short-term climate goal -- even if Congress fails this year or next to pass a bill tackling greenhouse gases directly.

Senate Democrats crafting an energy bill have abandoned until September, and probably through the rest of the year, debate on climate measures like carbon caps on power plants and mandates for utilities to produce more power from renewable sources like wind and solar.

But while many people concerned about climate control have been focusing on the Senate, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under its Administrator Lisa Jackson, has been quietly preparing to crack down on coal, the most carbon-intensive fuel, like never before.

Under Jackson, a former chemical engineer for an oil company who says the idea that progress on environment has to hurt the economy is a "false choice," the agency late last year declared that greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare.