Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid Harry Mason ReidDemocrats fear Russia interference could spoil bid to retake Senate Graham signals support for confirming a Supreme Court nominee this year Trump signals he will move to replace Ginsburg 'without delay' MORE (D-Nev.) defended President Obama’s new climate rule for power plants on Tuesday and hit its Republican opponents for not having a viable climate change agenda.

“It has been disappointing, but not surprising, to see Republicans’ knee-jerk opposition to addressing climate change,” he said in a floor speech Tuesday. “It has been all the more frustrating because they have no plan of their own — just to let the smoke keep billowing.”

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Reid said Republicans were more interested interested in protecting “the bottom line of the coal and energy barons” than preserving the public health benefits that would result from the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan.

“President Obama’s Clean Power Plan is good for this country,” he said. “It is the strongest action we can take today to ensure a cleaner, healthier tomorrow for our children and grandchildren.”

Obama rolled out the final version of power plant rule on Monday, and it met immediate resistance from congressional Republicans.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has proposed attacking the regulations on three legislative fronts: through a bill blocking the rule, resolutions against it under the Congressional Review Act and attaching policy riders to spending bills. In June, McConnell attached an amendment to an environment appropriations bill that would block the rule.

“I am not going to sit by while the White House takes aim at the lifeblood or our state’s economy,” said McConnell, whose state depends on the coal industry. “I’m going to do everything I can to fight them.”

The Clean Power Plan looks to reduce carbon emissions from power plans by 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. The regulations will improve public health, Reid said, by cutting down on greenhouse gas levels and other air pollutants.

“Republicans would leave our children and grandchildren to pay the devastating cost of climate change,” he said. “They have no solutions, these Republicans. they are afraid to acknowledge that climate change is a problem. It is.”