President Obama will face a "hard choice" if the Republican-led Congress follows through on expected plans to send him legislation that would block EPA's rule to define Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction, sources say, as Obama might choose to focus his political capital on protecting the agency's power plant climate rules instead. Democrats have no options in the GOP House to halt legislation that would either prohibit EPA finalizing the rule or bar the agency from using any funds to implement a finalized rule. In the Senate, which the GOP controls in the 114th Congress, Democrats might be able to whip enough votes to sustain the 60-vote threshold for a filibuster on legislation that follows regular order, though observers say even that outcome is still somewhat uncertain. Instead, there is the possibility that Obama might reluctantly sign a bill to block the CWA jurisdiction rule in order to focus on protecting EPA's existing source performance standards (ESPS) and new source performance standards (NSPS) for power plants, which are seen by many as the administration's top environmental rules.
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