Climate change on the front burner?

President Obama‘s re-election has given new hope to environmental groups calling for more decisive action on climate-change issues.

Though the president has received praise for a number of green measures—including unprecedented investments in clean energy, pollution restrictions on power plants and new standards for vehicle fuel efficiency—environmentalists have criticized the Obama administration for failing to present a comprehensive plan to address global warming and continuing to pursue domestic oil and natural-gas sources, according to the Huffington Post. However, green groups maintain hope that Obama will be able to overcome a gridlocked Congress to pursue further environmental regulation during his second term.

Andrew Steer of the World Resources Institute noted that Obama has the opportunity to “tackle the greatest challenges of our generation” and “at the top of his list should be climate change—which is already taking a serious toll on people, property, resources and the economy.”