The Obama administration’s environmental policy is deepening divisions between big businesses on climate change, mirroring polarisation among US states over an issue that will drive more legal and political conflict next year.
A White House plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions from power stations has exposed a growing rift between consumer businesses that support the proposal and industrial groups that are vehemently opposed to it.
President Barack Obama is seeking to make action on climate change a central part of his legacy, but the plan from his environmental regulator is already threatened by lawsuits and Republican opponents in the US Congress.