Trump rollback of Obama climate agenda may prove challenging

Donald Trump will be in a strong position to dismantle some of President Barack Obama's efforts to reduce planet-warming carbon emissions. But delivering on campaign pledges to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency and bring back long-gone coal mining jobs will likely prove more difficult for the new president.

Once in office, Trump plans to to stop defending the Clean Power Plan and other recent Obama-era regulations targeted by legal challenges filed by Republican-led states and the fossil fuel industry. Trump also has said he would "cancel" the Paris climate accord.

As a legal matter, Trump can't simply get rid of the EPA. Though established in 1970 by President Richard Nixon through executive order, eliminating a federal Cabinet agency requires congressional approval and would likely face a filibuster.