Bush: Obama carbon rules ‘unconstitutional’

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush is panning President Obama’s newly unveiled climate change rules for power plants, ascribing them to continued executive branch overreach.

{mosads}”It’s typical of the Obama administration, taking executive power he doesn’t have,” the former Florida governor said Sunday night at a Freedom Partners event in southern California, noting current U.S. policy on pollution.

“I believe it’s unconstitutional, and, I think, in a relatively short period of time, the courts will determine that as well,” Bush added.

The Environmental Protection Agency maintains its action on the climate rule is within its power for regulating pollution under the Clean Air Act, but is expected to face legal challenges.

The regulation unveiled by the Obama administration on Sunday aims to reduce carbon emissions by 32 percent nationwide by 2030, based on carbon levels in 2005.

If states do not submit plans to reach the specified carbon-reduction goals, the EPA will write and impose strategies for them. Obama will announce the plan Monday afternoon.

“I think it’s going to be a disaster,” Bush said Sunday night. “For high, sustained economic growth, where people have a chance at earned success, this is going to be a job killer.”

Bush mocked a 2 percent annual U.S. economic growth rate, saying with it the Obama administration “wants to create the new normal,” adding, “2 percent will damn us as a nation.”

“This is going to be a disaster and we should fight it,” Bush said.

Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas), another Republican presidential candidate, pledged to block the new rules if elected, saying they would raise Americans’ electricity costs, according to The New York Times.