His program can not be sustained without congress and/or the White House.
Correct. In 2007 SCOTUS ruled that CO2 was a pollutant(Massachusetts v EPA). SCOTUS told EPA to regulate CO2 with the Clean Air Act(1972). Which means they need nothing from Congress to proceed.
But, Obama(and Bush) wanted Congress to preempt EPA.
Congress debated cap and tax versus cape and trade in 2008. Then Sen Obama supported cap and tax but cap and trade won out so Congress would try to pass cap and trade beginning in 2009.
The House tried in 2009 and the Senate tried in 2010, but both failed.
After the Senate failed in 2010, Obama/EPA began moving forward with their CO2 regs.
The first set of regs there in 2010 dealt with new permits or new plants. Regs on existing plants wouldn't come until 2014.
After the new permit regs were issued in 2010, many lawsuits were filed and the court would combine all the suits into a single case called Utility Air Regulatory Group vs EPA. That reached SCOTUS and they ruled almost totally for Obama, but they did put some minor limits on the permitting process. That ruling was about June 15, 2014.
Just prior to this, on about June 1, 2014, Obama would issue his regs on existing permits/plants. Two lawsuits have already been filed including one from 12 coal states. EPA will issue the final rule later this year, after which there will probably be more suits filed. That will have to go all the way to SCOTUS.