EPA Under Fire for Regulating Greenhouse Gas Emissions
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EPA Under Fire for Regulating Greenhouse Gas Emissions

After healthcare reform, the next target for House Republicans is EPA regulation of greenhouse gases. We hear about the latest developments in the political battle over global warming. Also, President Obama's State of the Union speech, and rare street protests in Cairo today appear to have been inspired by the Tunisia's "Jasmine revolution."

Banner image: Smoke stacks at American Electric Power's Mountaineer coal power plant in New Haven, West Virginia. In cooperation with AEP, the French company Alstom unveiled the world's largest 'clean cole' facility at a coal plant, which will store 100,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide a year 7,200 feet underground. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/ Getty Images

Making News

The President's Speech ()

Tonight's State of the Union address is billed by the White House as a blueprint for economic recovery and competitiveness, but it's also a kind of formal beginning to the President's re-election campaign in 2012. Can Barack Obama rise above the expected clichés? Walter Shapiro, senior correspondent for Politics Daily, wrote speeches for former President Jimmy Carter.

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Main Topic

Global Warming, the EPA and Republicans in Congress ()

Whatever the President says tonight about global warming, the Environmental Protection Agency is the next House-Republican target after healthcare reform. The GOP is determined to stop, or delay for years, new regulations of greenhouse emissions being promulgated by the EPA. Last year was the warmest on Earth since 1850, but Congress wasn't alarmed enough to take action, so the EPA began regulating greenhouse emissions. The US Supreme Court said the EPA had no choice if public health was at risk. Republicans say the regulations are job killers that aren't worth the cost. Are they a long-term requirement for coping with global warming or "an unconstitutional power grab" based on scientific uncertainties?

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Reporter's Notebook

Egyptians Take to the Street ()

Since Tunisia's so-called Jasmine revolution, the world has been watching for similar protests elsewhere in the Middle East. Today's violent "day of rage" against a newly appointed Lebanese prime minister was part of an ongoing story. More surprising was today's demonstration in Cairo, where political dissenters have been repressed during three decades of rule by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Though not all of the 80,000 who signed up on Facebook turned out for the rally, thousands did, only to be met by 20,000 police who swung batons and sprayed tear gas. Matt Bradley is Cairo correspondent for the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones news wires.

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