WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration on Wednesday said it would delay for months a final rule to control carbon dioxide emissions at new coal-fired power plants, thwarting for now one way the Republican-controlled Congress could have blocked the administration's plans on global warming.

Laurence H. Tribe, professor of constitutional law at Harvard University and former mentor to Barack Obama, said in an article last week that the EPA’s Clean Power Plan is unconstitutional.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal on Dec. 22, Tribe asserted that as a father and grandfather he wants “to leave the Earth in better shape than when I arrived", but that he nonetheless has filed comments with the EPA urging the agency to withdraw the Clean Power Plan.

Japan’s tech giant Toshiba has developed new technology for artificial photosynthesis, which could be used in future to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere to slow down global warming.

Using solar energy to convert carbon dioxide into solid or liquid carbon compounds with 1.5 per cent efficiency, Toshiba’s system works better than other earlier developed artificial photosynthesis technologies.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Citing increased costs brought on by environmental regulations levied under the Obama Administration, Alabama Power Company on Tuesday filed for its first rate increase since 2011. The increase will raise the average household’s monthly bill by $6.78.

Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed tighter limits on emissions of smog-producing ozone, rules designed to reduce asthma and heart disease that critics said they may be among the costliest ever issued by the agency.

The EPA published a proposal today for ground-level ozone, offering to tighten the levels to 65-70 parts per billion, from the current 75 parts per billion for an eight-hour period.

(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to weigh a challenge by industry groups and some states to an Obama administration regulation intended to limit emissions of mercury and other hazardous pollutants mainly from coal-fired power plants.

In a blow to the administration, the justices said in a brief order they would review an April ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that upheld the rule.

Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Europe faces power shortages in the next decade unless it balances its drive for low-carbon energy with investment in clean-coal and nuclear generation, according to the International Energy Agency.

Policy makers must boost incentives for coal-fired power that includes carbon-capture technology and spur investment in new atomic plants to replace aging reactors, Maria van der Hoeven, the executive director of the IEA, said in an interview.