June 25, 2013 04:09 PM UTC

Obama Lays Out Climate Change Plan

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• by: Colorado Pols

From CNN:

President Barack Obama unveiled an aggressive new climate change strategy on Tuesday that would limit pollution from existing coal-fired power plants, and he made clear that approval of the Keystone XL pipeline depended on the project not increasing overall greenhouse gas emissions.

Obama raised the two politically charged issues during an address on second-term environmental priorities that included his plan of executive actions that don't require congressional approval.

He also pledged global leadership on climate change and to redouble U.S. efforts to fight it.

Obama's speech did a good job outlining the messaging necessary for an effort like this, pointing out that critics have always claimed environmental regulations would destroy the economy, etc., — from as far back as 1970s efforts to create the Clean Water Act, reduce smog and eliminate acid rain — but the gloom-and-doom scenarios never materialized.