Podesta confident climate rule will outlast next president

White House adviser John Podesta said he is confident the administration’s latest climate rule will survive President Obama’s successor.

Podesta told reporters Friday at a Christian Science Monitor Breakfast event that the next president will fail at an attempt to reverse Obama’s proposal to limit carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants.

{mosads}”President Bush tried to overturn a number of rules that President Clinton issued at the end of his term,” Podesta said. “I believe none were successful, many in the environmental arena. And a few of them, when they finally did go into effect, President Bush took credit for.”

“He tried to reverse some of the appliance, and the courts upheld them because they were finalized under the laws that were prevailing at the time,” he added.

As for the carbon emissions rules, which are the most aggressive step taken by a president on climate change to date, Podesta said that “people can try to roll it back,” but that he’s confident they won’t be successful.

Another reason Podesta thinks the rules will survive is because he is certain the next president will have to be one who “embraces the cause of tackling climate change.”

Still, he admitted there will undoubtedly be legal challenges.