White House issues veto threats for two GOP environment bills

The White House has threatened to veto two GOP measures taking aim at Obama administration climate efforts. 

Lawmakers will consider Wednesday a bill from Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) allowing states to opt out of the the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) climate rule for power plants and block its implementation until legal challenges against it are exhausted. Republicans say the bill is necessary to block a broad new EPA rule they warn will raise energy prices and threaten some energy sector jobs. 

{mosads}But in a statement of administration policy issued Tuesday night, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said the bill would give states too much power to avoid federal regulations under the Clean Air Act. The statement said the bill’s legal provisions are “premature and unnecessary” because the EPA has yet to finalize the rule and Congress hasn’t before blocked implementing an air regulation during judicial review.

Obama would veto the bill, the statement said, because it “threatens the health and economic welfare of current and future generations by blocking important standards to reduce carbon pollution from the power sector.”

The White House also took aim at House Republicans’ funding bill for the Interior Department and environmental programs. The OMB said the administration “disagrees strongly” with the bill’s proposed cut to the EPA, which would be funded at a level $474 million lower than what Obama proposed in his 2016 budget. 

The White House objected to policy provisions in the bill as well, including those blocking environmental rules from the EPA and the Department of Interior. Other aspects of the bill — including funding levels for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and restrictions to Endangered Species Act rule-making — also earned rebukes from the White House. 

The administration has opposed other proposed congressional funding bills this session because of their adherence to sequestration budget caps, which Obama and most Democrats say are too low and restrictive.