President Barack Obama unveiled Tuesday a range of executive branch actions to battle climate change. "We don't have time for a meeting of the flat-earth society," Obama said in a speech at Georgetown University, addressing climate change denies. Among the initiatives aimed at cutting carbon emissions is a directive for the Environmental Protection Agency to establish carbon emission standards for new and existing power plants. Obama said power plants dump "unlimited" carbon pollution into the air "for free" and need to stop. The president also said a forthcoming decision on the controversial Keystone pipeline to carry oil from the tar sands of Canada to the Gulf Coast would be made with high environmental standards in mind. The pipeline's "net effects" on climate would be "absolutely critical" in determining whether the project goes forward, Obama said.
