President Barack Obama delivered a speech on Monday praising the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) expanded power to regulate greenhouse gas pollution and create cleaner air.

While speaking in the East Room, the president celebrated the EPA's regulatory power, while blasting Republicans, climate change deniers and "special interest" groups that oppose the administration's new controls on carbon emissions from existing power plants.

The president also described the Clean Power Plan as "the biggest, most important step we have ever taken" in tackling climate change," reports BBC.

The goal of the revised Clean Power Plan is to reduce carbon emissions from U.S. power stations by 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. According to the Obama administration, this will help American families save almost $85 a year on their energy bills, and up to $155 billion collectively by 2030.

States would not be required to submit plans that fall in line with the new rules until September 2016. They would then have to implement the plans by 2022.

In addition, the measures encourage the growth of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power. Obama also said that the new rules would create jobs and help children who suffer from asthma and respiratory problems, while curbing the damage to the planet's ozone layer.

However, opponents say that the new rules would lead to job layoffs and hurt state economies that depend heavily on coal.

"There will be critics of what we're trying to do," Obama told the audience of environmentalists and supporters of the EPA's new restrictions.

"Long before the details of this clean power plan were decided, the special interests and their allies in Congress were already mobilizing to oppose it with everything they've got," the president said, according to RealClearPolitics.

Obama also emphasized the urgency of taking such steps to address climate change.

"There is such a thing as being too late when it comes to climate change," he warned, arguing that the plan would protect "my grandkids" and future generations.

Other opponents have said that Obama has declared "a war on coal."

In response, the president said, "They'll claim this plan is a war on coal to scare up votes, even as they ignore my plan to actually invest in revitalizing coal country and supporting healthcare and retirement for coal miners and their families, and retraining those workers for better paying jobs and healthier jobs."

"If we don't do it nobody will. America leads the way forward... that's what this plan is about. This is our moment to get something right and get something right for our kids," he said.