White House counselor John Podesta recently voiced his opinion about the proposed rule on restricting greenhouse gas emissions by the Environmental Protection Agency.
At a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor and America's Natural Gas Alliance, Podesta told reporters who were present at the event, "People can try to roll it back. I'm fairly confident. Of course, I'm fairly confident that we'll have a president that will embrace the cause of tackling climate change and reducing emissions. If you're a climate denier trying to run nationally, I think you're going to have a very hard road to go getting elected president of the United States."
Podesta said that the desire to address the worrying climate change by the public will most likely influence lawmakers, especially in the GOP, and will be surviving scrutiny by the executive branch well after President Barack Obama's term.
On the other hand, Podesta offered his thoughts about the strategy opponents of the EPA carbon emission proposal would mostly use to kill the rule. He told reporters that critics in the Senate will use the Congressional Review Act in their attempts to block the proposal, which would cut CO2 emissions from power plants, from becoming law. Podesta also said that the CRA tactic will mostly likely be used until the rule has been finalized and well after the November midterm elections.
Nonetheless, Podesta said he is fairly optimistic about the EPA rule being passed into law. "Once you've made that decision, I think there'll be a legal obligation to move forward with it, there'll be a political commitment to move forward with it and I think that this rule will be implemented," he stated.
As for Democrats who are running in the 2014 midterm elections, Podesta said that the EPA proposal could present a political opportunity for them to advance in the polls. He explained, "There's no doubt there's some states where this is an issue that presents a different set of political challenges, particularly coal-producing states," he said. "And there's no doubt that the polluters have come after this rule and they'll try to attack it and try to knock down that approval rating and they'll try to put it squarely in the context of the political campaigns that are ongoing in 2014."
