Obama May Implement Climate Pledge Without Congress

Could use executive power and regulation

President Barack Obama, whose inaugural address made climate change a second-term priority, could bypass Congress and implement much of his environmental agenda unilaterally through regulations and executive action.

Obama can accomplish much of what was sought under the failed 2009 cap-and-trade legislation through regulation, in part because of legal authority stemming from the four-decade- old Clean Air Act and a 2007 Supreme Court decision applying it to carbon emissions.