White House downplays GOP saber rattling over climate deal

By John Siciliano, John Siciliano

Published December 20, 2015

!--StartFragment-->

The White House is downplaying growing Republican opposition to President Obama's climate change agenda, which reached a fever pitch ahead of the president's trip to Paris to hash out a global deal on emissions reductions.

The White House says that despite GOP "hostility," the administration has managed to advance its goals through regulation that doesn't require congressional approval, downplaying concerns that the GOP could block Obama's goals.

"We're well aware that there is an abiding hostility in the Republican conference to facts and science and evidence" that support global warming, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Monday from Paris.