Obama will use veto to defend climate change plan if necessary

Barack Obama will use all of his powers – including his veto – to defend his plan to fight climate change, the White House said, on the eve of new rules cutting carbon pollution from power plants.

Obama is expected to unveil the new rules as early as Monday, according to those familiar with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plan.

The final version will give states and electricity companies an extra two years – until 2022 – before they need to start cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

The delay was seen as an attempt to defuse opposition from Republicans in Congress and industry to the rules.

But the White House said on Wednesday it was still gearing up to do battle over the new rules.

“When it comes to the Clean Power Plan, let me say this: We will not back down. We will finalise a stronger rule. We will veto ideological riders to stop this plan and undercut our bedrock environmental laws, and we will move forward on behalf of the American people with the vision set forward by the president,” Denis McDonough, the White House chief of staff, said on Wednesday.

He said the time lag would not weaken the power plant rules or stop the US from meeting its global commitments to fight climate change.

Power plants are the single largest source of carbon pollution in the US. The EPA rules are critical to meeting Obama’s promise to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 26% to 28% by 2025 and, by extension, shoring up Obama’s efforts to reach a global agreement to fight climate change in Paris at the end of the year.

“Given the president’s legacy, I can’t imagine the EPA would go through this huge stakeholder effort and not follow through,” said Bill Becker, director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies.

So far, half a dozen states including Texas and Oklahoma have declared they will not go along with the EPA rules and could take the agency to court.

However, Becker said many states were already preparing to put their carbon-cutting plans in place.

Republicans in Congress this week attached riders to must-pass funding bills that would delay the EPA rules or block them entirely.

Meanwhile, power companies, especially those that rely heavily on coal, claim the EPA rules would drive up household electricity bills.

McDonough said the opposition came straight from the “well-worn playbook of scare tactics”, but he said the White House would not retreat. “There is no doubt we will be focused on all this and be forced to battle back.”

The White House official also dismissed fears the EPA delay would weaken efforts to fight climate change.

After receiving more than 4.3 million public comments – the most ever to any environmental rule – the EPA is now expected to give states until 2022 to start cutting emissions, according to those familiar with the final rule.

Under the original draft, states were required to submit an initial carbon-cutting plan by September 2016. That deadline has now been extended into 2018.

The agency is also believed to have reduced targets for some states, in the hopes of getting more support later on.

The EPA is believed to have offered incentives to states that hit the original deadline – which McDonough said would ultimately strengthen the rules.

“It will be stronger in many ways than the proposed rule put forward by the EPA by encouraging rapid deployment of the cleanest form of energy,” McDonough told a forum hosted by the New Republic and the Center for American Progress.

However, some campaign groups were openly concerned about the time lag. Ken Kimmell, the president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the states did not need more time to put their plans in place. “States are already on track to cut their emissions through actions they’ve put in place,” he said.

“If the EPA does decide to delay compliance timelines, I’ll be looking for assurance that the overall emission reductions achieved by the rule stay strong, early action by states is incentivized, and any delay won’t jeopardize the US’s 2025 international commitment.”

The American Lung Association, which has been a solid supporter of the EPA rules, said it was reassured by reports of incentives for states to act quickly. “The final plan ... appears to be a robust approach to reduce carbon pollution from power plants,” said CEO Harold Wimmer.