Climate change and the State of the Union

"But we have to act with more urgency because a changing climate is already harming western communities struggling with drought and coastal cities dealing with floods," President Obama said in his State of the Union address last night. ""That's why I directed my administration to work with states, utilities and others to set new standards on the amount of carbon pollution our power plants are allowed to dump into the air.

Environmental groups praised the speech, but pushed for more. Many singled out his "all-of-the-above" energy strategy as problematic, saying a more definitive shift to clean energy needs to happen.

"The shift to a cleaner energy economy won't happen overnight, and it will require some tough choices along the way," Obama said. "But the debate is settled. Climate change is a fact. And when our children's children look us in the eye and ask if we did all we could to leave them a safer, more stable world, with new sources of energy, I want us to be able to say yes, we did."

Here are responses from various environmental groups: