Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy is trying to reassure foreign diplomats that President Obama’s climate regulations will hold up to challenges.
In an interview with Agence France-Presse, an international news agency based in Paris, McCarthy tried to reassure worried international observers that the U.S. commitments to the climate talks at the end of the month will stand up to legal challenges and future administrations.
“Every decision that we have made has been bounded in climate science and bounded in the laws of the United States,” she said.
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“We always anticipate that there are going to be challenges to our rules. We have protected against it, and we are going to win when push comes to shove.”
Obama is expected to head to Paris for the climate talks, which start Nov. 30 and are expected to end in a major international agreement.
It’s questionable how much the deal would limit the effects of climate change, which many scientists blame on greenhouse gases emitted in the burning of fossil fuels. UN officials have said that the commitments pledged by 157 of the 195 countries at the Paris talks will not achieve the goal of keeping global temperatures from rising 2 degrees Celsius by mid-century.
The Clean Power Plan, Obama’s signature environmental regulation, is facing legal challenges from 27 states and a number of interest groups. The regulation would set goals for states to reduce their carbon emissions one-third during the next 10 years from 2005 levels.
However, the Clean Power Plan could have its legal justification wiped out by Congress if amendments to the Clean Air Act are enacted.
Several other environmental regulations, such as the new ozone standards and the Waters of the United States rule, also are facing legal challenges.
French diplomats have been publicly nervous about the American ability to back up Obama’s climate pledges. French and European Union officials expressed concern after Secretary of State John Kerry said the agreement would not be a treaty, pointing out that the agreement would have some binding elements under international law.
The Obama administration is pursuing the Paris talks as an executive agreement rather than a treaty, so that the Senate would not have to ratify it.
McCarthy sought to soothe worried Europeans by reassuring them about the EPA’s ability to ground its regulations in law.
“Legally, it’s very difficult to undo these,” she told AFP. “It’s going to stand the test of time.”
