Obama launches plan to fight climate change in US

[mhayeor]

Climate change just got personal – or at least, that's how President Barack Obama is selling the idea of taking action on climate change to the American people.

Launching his long-awaited plan to combat climate change today, Obama explicitly linked current hardships to our planet's warming trend: "Farmers see crops wilted one year, washed away the next, and the higher food prices get passed on to you," he told an audience at Georgetown University in Washington DC.

With the Republican majority in the House of Representatives blocking any attempt to pass comprehensive legislation to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the plan stresses regulations under the Clean Air Act, principally new limits on emissions from power plants.

In a surprise move, the president also weighed in on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, planned to transport oil from Canada's tar sands to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico – suggesting that it will go ahead only if it causes no increase in carbon emissions.

"The net effects of climate impact will be absolutely critical to determining whether this project will go forward," Obama said.