EPA's McCarthy pushing major climate initiatives despite GOP opposition

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- The Obama administration's top environment official said the EPA plans to move forward on advancing initiatives to fight climate change, despite strong pushback from the GOP.

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, reflecting President Obama's push towards making environmental issues a priority in his final two years, promised to push tougher limits on carbon dioxide and methane emissions at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor Monday.

"I feel very confident that the American people understand the value of the EPA," McCarthy said. "There may be challenges ahead, but the president will do the right thing."

The "right thing," in this case, is the landmark deal the administration reached with Chinese leaders for both countries cut drastically cut emissions by 2030

The deal has already come under fire from top GOP officials, including incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

McConnell has repeatedly targeted the EPA, promising to "go to war" with Obama over environmental regulations.

"What the administration has done to the coal industry is a true outrage," he told the Louisville Courier-Journal last week. "So he had a war on coal and, honestly, I'm going to go to war with him over coal."

On Monday, McCarthy pushed back on the notion of a "war on coal" insisting the energy source would "remain a party of the energy mix." Meanwhile, she said, Americans are calling for action: Even with a conservative electorate turnout at the midterms, national exit polls found 58 percent of voters concerned about climate change.

"When you survey folks, they're worried about climate change and they want us to do something," she said. "EPA has not been a partisan agency. It's been an agency that's done its job to protect public health and the environment in the smartest way we can. I do not believe that the American public wants to see us not do that."