Simpson Vows to Fight Presidential Environmental Plans

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The head of a House panel that helps set the Environmental Protection Agency's budget plans to do everything in his power to thwart President Barack Obama's proposed new regulations on greenhouse gas emissions. U.S. Rep.

Mike Simpson, an Idaho Republican, is chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and the Environment. He said Thursday Obama's plan to reduce pollution from industrial installations including coal-fired power plants that supply his home state with about half its electricity show the president has little concern for the economic impact of such regulations.

Simpson says he believes Congress, not the president via an executive order, should be in charge of any new greenhouse gas regulations. He pledged that his fiscal year 2014 budget bill "will be part of the battleground" over Obama's intentions.