President Barack Obama on Tuesday threatened to veto a Conservative bill that seeks to make it impossible for the EPA to implement its plan to curb carbon emissions from existing power plants.

The Ratepayer Protection Act, which will be considered by the House on Wednesday, would delay implementation of the Clean Power Plan until all legal challenges against it have been dealt with, and then allow any state governor to opt out.

“The bill would give governors unprecedented and broad discretion to avoid compliance with the [plan], thereby delaying the delivery of important public health benefits,” the Obama administration said in a statement Tuesday evening.

It said the bill is “premature and unnecessary” and that it “would be felt hardest by those most at risk from the impacts of air pollution and climate change”.

The bill, introduced by Kentucky Republican Ed Whitfield, is one of several pieces of legislation to emerge in recent months aimed at defeating the administration’s efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

Tuesday’s statement also suggested Obama might veto a House Republican funding directive seeking to slash nearly $750 million in EPA funding compared to what the president has proposed for 2016.

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