WASHINGTON -- The White House on Tuesday introduced President Barack Obama's blueprint for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the United States by nearly a third over the next decade.
Obama's plan, part of a formal written submission to the United Nations ahead of efforts to forge a global climate change accord in Paris in December, detailed the side of the U.S. in a joint pledge that the president made in November in Beijing with President Xi Jinping of China.
The United States and China are the world's two largest greenhouse gas polluters. Obama said the U.S. would cut its emissions by 26 percent to 28 percent by 2025, while Xi said that China's emissions would drop after 2030.
Obama's new blueprint describes how the U.S. will meet its pledge, using the president's executive authority.
At the heart of the plan are ambitious but politically contentious Environmental Protection Agency regulations meant to drastically cut carbon dioxide emissions from the nation's cars and coal-fired power plants. The plan also relies on a speedy timetable, which assumes Obama's administration will issue and begin enacting all such regulations before he leaves office.
"We can achieve this goal using laws that are already on the books, and it will be in place by the time the president leaves office," said Brian Deese, Obama's senior adviser on climate change.
But the plan has also intensified opposition from Republican lawmakers who object to Obama's effort to build a climate change legacy. Republicans have called the rules a "war on coal" and an abuse of executive authority. Nearly every potential Republican presidential candidate has criticized Obama's climate change agenda.
Republican leaders Tuesday announced their intent to weaken or undo Obama's plan -- and, by extension, to block the international efforts to reach a climate accord in Paris.
"Even if the job-killing and likely illegal Clean Power Plan were fully implemented, the United States could not meet the targets laid out in this proposed new plan," said Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.,the Senate majority leader who has been a vocal critic of the president's plan. "Considering that two-thirds of the U.S. federal government hasn't even signed off on the Clean Power Plan and 13 states have already pledged to fight it, our international partners should proceed with caution before entering into a binding, unattainable deal."
Environmental groups praised the plan, particularly the president's effort to work around Congress.
"The United States' proposal shows that it is ready to lead by example on the climate crisis," said Jennifer Morgan, an expert on international climate negotiations at the World Resources Institute, a Washington research organization.
The research of Morgan's group has concluded that the U.S. can substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions under existing federal authority.
However, environmental groups also said far deeper cuts are necessary beyond 2025 to stave off the most devastating effects of climate change.
"In fact, the U.S. must do more than just deliver on this pledge -- the 28 percent domestic target can and must be a floor, not a ceiling," said Lou Leonard, vice president for climate change policy with the conservation group World Wildlife Fund.
Republicans also adamantly oppose Obama's efforts to reach the U.N. accord in Paris. To bypass the Senate -- which would have to ratify U.S. involvement in a foreign treaty -- Secretary of State John Kerry and other diplomatic officials are working closely with their foreign counterparts to ensure that the Paris deal does not qualify legally as a treaty.
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., has put together legislation intended to nullify Obama's international climate change agreements. Republican leaders may try to add that as an amendment to must-pass legislation, such as a critical spending measure later this year, to force the hands of Obama and other Democrats.
"Just as we witnessed throughout recent negotiations with Iran and during the previous climate agreement with China, President Obama and his administration act as if Congress has no role in these discussions. That's just flat out wrong," Blunt said in a written statement. "We will not stand by and allow the president to unilaterally enact bad energy policies that hurt our nation's poorest families and young people the most. I'll continue working with my colleagues to ensure Americans' voices are heard."
A Section on 04/01/2015