The White House said Tuesday that President Obama would veto a Senate measure aimed at blocking his administration’s plan to force steep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
The resolution backed by Senate Republicans would hurt the administration’s efforts to reduce carbon pollution “when the need to act, and to act quickly, to mitigate climate change impacts on American communities has never been more clear,” the White House said.
House Republicans also are seeking to block Mr. Obama’s plan to impose new regulations on new and existing coal-fired plants under the little-used Congressional Review Act, which allows lawmakers to block executive actions with simple majority votes.
The showdown over the EPA rule is coming just weeks before Mr. Obama is scheduled to attend a major climate-change conference in Paris with other world leaders, with the president seeking commitments from other countries to reduce carbon emissions.
The White House said the Senate resolution “seeks to block progress towards cleaner energy, eliminating public health and other benefits of up to $54 billion per year by 2030, including thousands fewer premature deaths from air pollution and tens of thousands of fewer childhood asthma attacks each year.”
“Forty-five years of clean air regulation have shown that a strong economy and strong environmental and public health protection go hand in hand,” said the White House Office of Management and Budget.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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