In his second inaugural address, President Obama promised to take on climate change as a priority in his second term. “We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that failure to do so would betray our children and future generations,” he said at the start of one of the longest passages devoted to a single subject in the speech.

But the president did not detail exactly how he intended to act, given the hostility in Congress and industry to taxes on carbon dioxide emissions or any broad-gauged legislative effort to address the problem. Officials said that he would put some flesh on the bones of his promise in his State of the Union address next week and in his budget proposal.

Mr. Obama has a limited number of administrative options for cutting climate-altering gases and meeting his public pledge of reducing United States greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.

On Wednesday, the World Resources Institute offered a helpful guide to how the administration might keep the president’s promise. The report, “Can the U.S. Get There from Here?” lays out a series of policy steps the administration can take without Congressional action or approval.

via A New Path on Emissions – NYTimes.com.