(CN) - Calling it "the single most important step that America has ever made" in tackling climate change, President Barack Obama unveiled the revised Clean Power Plan on Monday to mixed reactions from the energy industry and environmentalists.
"I am convinced that no challenge poses a greater threat to our future and future generations than a changing climate and that is what brings us here today," Obama said.
"This is one of those rare issues, because of its magnitude, because of its scope. If we don't get it right, we may not be able to reverse," he said.
The Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan uses state-by-state targets to cut carbon pollution by 32 percent over the next 15 years from levels recorded in 2005. It gives the states until 2022 to begin complying with the standards.
While environmental advocates hailed the plan as an important step in reducing climate change, the energy industry and coal advocates called it an attack on fossil fuels that will drive up costs, kill mining jobs and destabilize the electricity grid.
Murray Energy Corp., an Ohio coal company, said it will file lawsuits to block the "flagrantly unlawful" plan.
"This illegal rule will adversely restructure the electric power system in American and will force every state to radically change their energy policies," the company said. "It will dramatically increase the cost of electricity for all Americans, with no environmental benefit whatsoever."
Coal companies worry that the new proposals could raise their costs and shut down hundreds of coal-powered plants, which emit more carbon dioxide than other fossil fuels, such as natural gas.
St. Louis-based Arch Coal criticized the plan as "ill-advised and poorly designed," saying premature and costly regulations are not the answer to addressing climate concerns.
"China, India and the rest of emerging Asia are building their economies on fossil fuels generally, and coal specifically, which they view as their most affordable, reliable and secure energy option," said Deck Slone, Arch's senior vice president of strategy and public policy.
"To truly address the threat of climate change, these countries will need low-cost, low-carbon mitigation tools for fossil fuels. The administration's rule will do nothing to deliver such tools and could in fact slow their development here in the West, even as it hurts American ratepayers, American businesses and American competitiveness," Slone said.
The EPA cited power plants as the largest drivers of climate change in the United States, accounting for roughly one-third of carbon pollution emissions. The Clean Power Plan, which was proposed last year, will for the first time create national limits on such pollution.
By 2030, assuming full compliance with the plan, emissions of sulfur dioxide from power plants will be 90 percent lower and emissions of nitrogen oxides will be 72 percent lower than 2005 levels.
The reductions in pollutants that cause health-damaging soot and smog will ultimately lead to 3,600 fewer premature deaths and 90,000 fewer asthma attacks in children by 2030, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said.
The plan "will give our kids and grandkids the cleaner, safer future they deserve," she said.
It will also save an expected $45 billion a year by shrinking Americans' energy use and reducing health costs associated with air pollution, the EPA said.