The agency's 2014 budget would be cut by $3 billion, or 24 percent below, levels approved in March. Also, 10 percent of its budget for tax enforcement would be fenced off until the IRS implements recommendations by an agency watchdog designed to prevent further abuses.

The IRS cuts come after a wave of bad publicity for the agency including questionable spending on conferences like a lavish $4.1 million event in 2010 which included a "Star Trek" video parody and a $17,000 payment to a motivational speaker who was a painter.

President Barack Obama requested a $1 billion budget hike for the IRS.

"Right now I can't think of a federal agency in a worse position to ask for more money," said Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas.

The Appropriations Committee also revealed cuts to NASA, White House salaries, and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The full House took up a $30.4 billion measure funding the Energy Department and water projects that is about $3 billion below levels enacted earlier this year. Democrats protested cuts to clean and renewable energy programs.

Democrats controlling a Senate panel, meanwhile, went in a wholly opposite direction in giving a $1.3 billion increase to the agency chiefly responsible to implement Obama's signature health care law.

At issue are the annual spending bills funding the day-to-day operations of federal agencies. The GOP-controlled House and Democratic-led Senate are acting as if on different planets, with the Senate acting as though deep automatic spending cuts don't exist and the House promising even more punishing cuts to domestic programs while restoring cuts to the Pentagon.

The House is drafting spending bills in line with a $967 billion "cap" required by automatic cuts that took effect in March after Washington failed to agree on an alternative mix of tax increases and cuts elsewhere in the $3.5 trillion federal budget. The Democratic Senate is writing bills to a $1.058 trillion cap, almost a full 10 percent higher. But the House GOP cuts to domestic programs are greatly magnified by a $41 billion shift from non-defense programs like NASA, education and research on renewable energy to the Pentagon.

The result are night-and-day differences between the House and Senate spending bills illustrated most dramatically by a $164 billion Senate measure unveiled Tuesday by liberal Democrat Tom Harkin of Iowa. The measure, which funds education, health and labor programs, is a full 26 percent more generous to such programs than an as-yet-unreleased House version.

So even as advocates for the poor worry about budget cuts forcing poor preschoolers from Head Start, the Senate measure promises to increase the program by $1.6 billion or about 20 percent. Health research would win a small increase, as would Title I grants to help educate disadvantaged school children.

Republicans say the Senate bills are filled with empty promises. Even if they were enacted over GOP opposition, they would be subject to across-the-board cuts known as sequestration that would bring them down to the $967 billion level embraced by Republicans. Sequestration is required because Congress and Obama have failed to follow up a 2011 budget pact with follow-up deficit cuts other than a bitterly fought tax increase on upper-bracket earners.

By contrast, the House measures revealed Tuesday are laced with painful cuts. While the FBI is exempted, NASA would absorb an almost $1 billion cut below 2013 levels. Spending on federal buildings would be cut $2.4 billion below Obama's request and the U.S. Marshals Service, the federal prison system and the Drug Enforcement Administration would also have to absorb cuts.

"At some point, there is no 'doing more with less,'" said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla. "There is only less."

Absent a broader agreement on the budget, the rival chambers of Congress are on a collision course facing a potential government shutdown when current-year funding runs out on Sept. 30. A shutdown is unlikely, but avoiding one would require a stopgap funding measure to keep the government running after that date.

On Twitter, , the chairman of the foreign-affairs committee in the Duma,that Snowden had accepted Venezuela's offer of political asylum:

I have a screenshot.

Here's , courtesy of Mashable's Alex Fitzpatrick: "As expected, Snowden has agreed to offer Maduro (Nicolas Maduro, Venezuelan president) for political asylum. Apparently, this option seemed the most reliable Snowden."

Within moments of the tweet, theandhad both picked it up. And just as quickly, Pushkov .

Two days ago, PushkovSnowden to accept Venezuela's offer. But now the lawmaker appears to have jumped the gun in telegraphing Snowden's course of action.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Games publisher Zynga Inc has replaced chief executive Mark Pincus with Don Mattrick, the Microsoft Corp executive who headed the critical Xbox business, Zynga announced on Monday.

The news, reported first by AllThingsD, sent Zynga shares up more than 11 percent earlier in the day. The shares rose a further 3 percent to $3.17 when Zynga confirmed the appointment after the bell.

Pincus, 47, who controls a 61 percent voting stake in the gaming company he founded in 2007, will remain as the company's chairman and chief product officer after personally helping to recruit Mattrick from Microsoft.

"Don is unique in the game business," Pincus said in a statement. "He can execute in multiple domains - hardware, software and network, and he's been the person responsible for game franchises like 'Need for Speed,' 'FIFA' and 'The Sims.'"

Zynga's business model, which relied heavily on selling virtual goods to gamers on Facebook Inc's platform, began to disintegrate a year ago as users tired of Facebook games and shifted to playing on mobile devices.

The company's shares have hovered at just 25 percent of its $10 initial offering price in December 2011 as Pincus has struggled to turn around the company named after his pet bulldog.

Mattrick's new role leading a game maker that publishes social media-based titles and smartphone games will be a marked departure from the world of big-budget, packaged console games embodied by the Xbox and Electronic Arts Inc, the game publishing firm where he had worked for 15 years.

In a statement, Mattrick emphasized that Pincus willingly recruited him and described their working relationship as that of "partners."

"I joined Zynga because I believe that Mark's pioneering vision and mission to connect the world through games is just getting started," Mattrick said. "Zynga is a great business that has yet to realize its full potential. I'm proud to partner with Mark to deliver high-quality, fun, social games wherever people want to play."

Although Wall Street embraced Mattrick's appointment, many analysts said questions remained about Zynga's ability to produce hit games that could prop up its shrinking revenues.

"Bringing in someone who has worked at a larger company to assist in management duties I think is a relief right now," said Richard Greenfield, an analyst at BTIG Research.

"But Pincus is still the chief product officer. So the question is, what's actually changed day to day in terms of making hit games?"

XBOX TURN AROUND

Mattrick joined Microsoft in 2007 after spending 15 years at EA, where he worked under Bing Gordon, a well-known gaming industry executive who went on to join venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Pincus and Gordon, who sits on Zynga's board, led the effort beginning this spring to recruit Mattrick, who had expressed an interest in leaving Microsoft to lead a company, according to people familiar with the situation.

Pincus, who joins Groupon's Andrew Mason among high-profile tech entrepreneurs who have relinquished their jobs as chief executives, publicly backed Mattrick's appointment.

"I've always said to Bing and our Board that, if I could find someone who could do a better job as our CEO, I'd do all I could to recruit and bring that person in," Pincus said. "I'm confident that Don is that leader."

At Microsoft, Mattrick helped turn the Xbox business into a profitable venture after years of losses, eventually propelling it into the No.1 selling console in the United States.

Mattrick's departure comes just as Microsoft gears up to launch the third version of its console, called the Xbox One. Unveiled in May and scheduled to hit stores later this year, the machine has already stirred controversy.

Gamers attacked the high price, Microsoft's plan to require an Internet connection at least once a day and attempts to limit the sharing of used games. Last month, Microsoft reversed its position on the Internet connection and said it would allow game sharing.

Mattrick has been rumored to be departing for months. After EA's CEO stepped down in March, industry sources speculated he was in the running to lead the top games publisher, where he previously held numerous leadership roles.

(Reporting by Malathi Nayak, Gerry Shih and Alexei Oreskovic in San Francisco and Bill Rigby in Seattle. Editing by Andre Grenon)

Judge Debra Nelson told prosecutors and defense attorneys they should plan on starting closing arguments Thursday.

The judge also said the six jurors could begin deliberating as early as Friday.

Zimmerman's defense attorneys rested Wednesday after calling 18 witnesses over four days.

Defense attorney Mark O'Mara told CNN there's "overwhelming evidence" that Zimmerman acted in self-defense when he fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, but he worries about jurors returning "a compromise verdict." Some legal analysts have suggested the jury could convict him of the lesser offense of manslaughter.

Zimmerman is pleading not guilty to second-degree murder.

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Combined Chelios (1,651), Niedermayer (1,263) and Shanahan (1,524) played in almost 5,000 games packing their trophy cases with Stanley Cups and individual honors.

Canadians Niedermayer and Shanahan are also members of hockey's Triple Gold Club having won a Stanley Cup, Olympic gold and world championship titles.

There was no Olympic gold for Chelios but the 11-time All-Star did play in four Winter Games for the United States winning silver in 2002 and helped the Americans to a surprise gold at the 1996 World Cup of Hockey.

One of the NHL's most durable players, Chelios survived 26 seasons with the Montreal Canadiens, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings and Atlanta Thrashers, winning three Stanley Cups (1986, 2002, 2008) and three Norris trophies as the league's top defenseman before ending his career in 2010 at the age of 48 becoming the second oldest player behind "Mr. Hockey" Gordie Howe to play in the NHL.

"It's a great honor to be selected for the Hockey Hall of Fame," said Chelios in a statement. "To have such a long career in the game has been fantastic for me and being named to the Hall is a huge recognition for what I was able to accomplish."

From the moment he strapped on a pair of skates everything Niedermayer touched seemed to turn to gold.

Over 18 seasons with the New Jersey Devils and Anaheim Ducks Niedermayer won the Stanley Cup on four occasions (1995, 2000, 2003, 2007), captured the Norris Trophy in 2004 and a Conn Smythe in 2007 as the playoffs most valuable player.

Along with Olympic gold from 2002 and 2010 and a world championship crown in 2004, Niedermayer's collection of medals includes gold from the world junior championships (1991) and the World Cup of Hockey (2004).

Just one of 18 NHLers to score more than 600 goals, Shanahan sits 13th on the all-time list with 656 tallies winning three Stanley Cups with the Detroit Red Wings.

Shanahan was also a feared and menacing presence on the ice amassing 2,489 penalties during 21 seasons split between the Devils, Wings, St. Louis Blues, Hartford Whalers and New York Rangers.

The hard-nosed power forward continues to play a leading role in the NHL was the league's chief disciplinarian and director of player safety.

"I had dreams as a little kid, as most kids do in Canada, that anytime you're shooting on an empty net in a driveway or a hallway you dream of scoring Stanley Cup winning goals," said Shanahan, who was also part of Canada's gold medal teams at the 2002 Olympics and 1994 world championships. "But I don't think any of us had the nerve to dream about stuff like this."

The 2013 class also includes Canada's Geraldine Heaney, a seven-time world champion and Olympic gold medalist who becomes the third woman voted into the hockey shrine while the late coach Fred Shero, who led the Philadelphia Flyers to back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1974 an 1975, will be inducted in the builders category.

Induction ceremonies will take place on November 11 in Toronto.

(Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto, editing by Gene Cherry)

OSLO (Reuters) - Scientists have made a strong, lightweight wire from carbon that might eventually be a rival to copper if its ability to conduct electricity can be improved, Cambridge University said on Thursday.

They said it was the first time that the super-strong carbon wires, spun in a tiny furnace that looks like a candy floss machine with temperatures above 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,800 F), had been made "in a usable form" a millimetre (0.04 inch) thick.

Krzysztof Koziol of the University's department of materials science and metallurgy told Reuters in a telephone interview that commercial applications were still years away but that "our target is to beat copper".

Wire made in the laboratory from carbon nanotubes (CNTs) - microscopic hollow cylinders composed of carbon atoms - is 10 times lighter than copper and 30 times stronger, the university said in a statement.

Among advances, the scientists found a way to solder CNTs to metal, something that had previously not been possible.

A big drawback for CNTs is that a kg (2.2 lbs) of copper is 2.5 times more conductive than a kg of CNT.

For the next few years, Cambridge University would focus on copper and CNT hybrids, a programme to create "ultra-conductive" copper that is supported by the copper industry. In some blends, tiny amounts of carbon improve copper's conductivity.

The International Copper Association, representing producers of more than half the world's copper, said that mass production of ultra-conductive copper could be 10 years away if the science can be improved.

But development of pure high-conductive CNT carbon that could supplant the metal in wiring is a remote prospect, said Malcolm Burwell, the Association's director of technology in North America.

"It's a long way off. The industry doesn't stay awake at night worrying" about carbon nanotubes supplanting copper, he said. He said 60 percent of all copper sold worldwide was to carry electricity.

Koziol, however, said pure CNT wires could have more immediate uses because they are more flexible than copper. That could be valuable in moving parts such as robot arms or in planes or cars where flexibility is more important than conductivity.

Weight can be crucial. About a third of the weight of a large space satellite, weighing 15 tonnes, is typically copper. A Boeing 747 jumbo jet uses as much as 215 km (135 miles) of copper wiring, weighing more than 2 tonnes, the university said.

The UK National Grid said a benefit of CNTs, if developed at commercial scale at a competitive cost, was that they can operate at high temperatures.

"A potential application ... is the ability to produce a conductor that operates effectively at high temperatures, reducing fatigue on our assets and extending the useful life of the conductor," spokeswoman Gillian West said.

"CNT may also be beneficial as it is lightweight and so much easier to transport to our sites," she said. (Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Health officials say more than 657,000 people have fallen ill and more than 8,000 people have died from cholera since it was likely introduced to Haiti by U.N. troops from Nepal in 2010. More than 30,000 people have fallen ill and 440 have died in the neighboring Dominican Republic.

Ban was responding to a May 30 letter from U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, and 18 other Congressional "friends of the people of Haiti" who expressed concern at the U.N.'s rejection of the claims by 5,000 cholera victims and their families.

The lawmakers urged the U.N. to take responsibility for introducing cholera into Haiti and take the lead in funding the Hispaniola Initiative, which requires $2.2 billion for Haiti and $70 million for the Dominican Republic over the next 10 years to improve access to clean water, develop sanitation infrastructure, and address the cholera epidemic.

"We are dismayed that the United Nations has committed only $23.5 million for this initiative," the members of Congress said.

Ban sent separate letters to the 19 lawmakers outlining measures the United Nations has taken and supported, saying it has devoted more than $140 million to cholera treatment and prevention activities since 2010.

"These efforts have helped to decrease the rate of new infection by 90 percent since the outbreak began," he said. "The mortality rate has been brought down to around 1 percent. Still, further progress must be made."

He did not address the issue of responsibility for the epidemic, and he reiterated that the U.N. rejected the compensation claim in February on grounds that the world body has legal immunity from such lawsuits.

"I would like to assure you that the legal decision does not in any way diminish my personal commitment, and that of the United Nations, to do all we can to help the people of Haiti overcome the cholera epidemic," Ban said. "Achieving this goal will not be easy, but it is possible."

The secretary-general agreed with the lawmakers that funding is "far from sufficient" and expressed concern that "the austere fiscal climate" could affect new financial commitments from U.N. member states to combat cholera.

The joint U.S. and French satellite was decommissioned this week after its last remaining transmitter failed, according to a NASA statement.

Launched on Dec. 7, 2001, Jason-1 was designed to have a lifespan of three to five years but it lasted for 11 years.

Every 10 days, its instruments scanned the ocean surface, mapping sea level, wind speed and wave height for more than 95 percent of the planet's ice-free ocean area. It was one of three oceanographic satellites that contributed to a 20-year record of sea-level changes, NASA said.

"Jason-1 has been a resounding scientific, technical and international success," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

Since its launch, Jason-1 recorded a rise of nearly 1.6 inches in global sea levels that are "a critical measure of climate change and a direct result of global warming," Grunsfeld said in a statement. "The Jason satellite series provides the most accurate measure of this impact, which is felt all over the globe."

Last year, the 1,100-pound satellite was moved into a final "graveyard" orbit where, its extra fuel depleted, it was assigned to observe Earth's gravity field over the ocean, NASA said.

A 406-day scan completed on June 17 led to the discovery of many underwater seamounts and increased knowledge of the depth of the ocean floor, researchers said.

"Even from its 'graveyard' orbit, Jason-1 continued to make unprecedented new observations of the Earth's gravity field, with precise measurements right till the end," said Jean-Yves Le Gall, president of France's Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales in Paris.

Contact with the satellite was lost on June 21 and efforts to re-establish it failed. On Monday, the satellite was ordered to turn off its attitude control systems. Jason-1 will slowly turn away from the sun and its solar-powered batteries will drain within the next 90 days, NASA said.

Jason-1 will remain in orbit for at least 1,000 years before it falls back into Earth's atmosphere, NASA said.

Jason-1 was one of three oceanographic satellites that carried a radar altimeter and bounced radio pulses off the Earth, enabling sea surface height to be determined to within a few centimeters.

Sea surface height changes with temperature so altimeter measurements are means to determine how much heat is stored in any given area of the ocean and how that changes.

From the data, scientists have improved their models of ocean circulation and monitored events such as El Nino, where large masses of warm water pool in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

"These Pacific Ocean climate cycles are responsible for major shifts in sea level, ocean temperatures and rainfall every two to five years, and can sometimes be so large that worldwide weather patterns are affected. Jason-1 data has been instrumental in monitoring and predicting these ever-changing cycles," said Lee-Lueng Fu, Jason-1 project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

Jason-1 worked in tandem with and then replaced Topex-Poseidon, which was launched in 1992 and was decommissioned in 2006.

Jason-2 was launched in 2008 and is still operating. Another satellite, Jason-3, is scheduled for launch in March 2015.

The satellite data was combined with information from the European Space Agency's Envisat mission, which also measured sea level from space.

The steps by the untested Adly Mansour, however, are likely to deepen the defiance by Islamist opponents who have turned parts of the Cairo into vigilante-guarded strongholds and have issued blood oaths to battle until Morsi is restored.

After a night of clashes that claimed at least 36 lives, both sides appeared to be preparing for the possibility of more violence as Egypt's political unraveling increasingly left little room for middle ground or dialogue.

In the eastern suburb of Nasr City near the main rallying point for Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood lines of fighters brandished homemade weapons and body armour at road blocks affixed with Morsi's picture.

Next door in the relatively upscale Heliopolis district, people chanted against Morsi and honked car horns in appreciation of roadblocks manned by Egypt's military whose snub of Morsi's authority earlier this week tipped the scales against Egypt's first elected leader.

Mansour's decision to bring pro-reform leader and Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei into the key government role of prime minister is also certain to help cement the loyalties of the anti-Morsi forces.

The president planned to swear-in ElBaradei later Saturday, said Khaled Dawoud, an official with the main opposition National Salvation Front.

ElBaradei, a former director of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency, led the protests against President Hosni Mubarak during the Arab Spring uprising that ended his autocratic rule in February 2011.

The revolution also opened the way for the political rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was long under pressure from Mubarak's Western-backed regime. Elections last year brought Morsi to the presidency, but ElBaradei remained a voice of dissent, once saying the Brotherhood lived "in a delusion" for thinking its members could manage the country on their own.

Egypt's new president chief justice of the country's constitutional court is little-known in international circles. But the choice of the 71-year-old ElBaradei gives the administration and prominent global figure to make its case to Washington and other Western allies trying to reassess policies after what Morsi's backers have described as a "coup." Morsi remains under detention in an undisclosed location.

Earlier, the president held talks with the army chief and interior minister in apparent attempts to work out strategies to contain another round of violence.

Morsi's supporters have vowed to take to the streets until the toppled Islamist leader is reinstated. His opponents, meanwhile, have called for more mass rallies to defend what they call the "gains of June 30."

"The people here and in all of Egypt's squares are ready for martyrdom to restore legitimacy," said Abdullah Shehatah, a senior leader of the Freedom and Justice Party, the Brotherhood's political arm. Speaking at the main sit-in site of Morsi supporters in Cairo, he said: "This coup and all its institutions are illegal."

There were no reports of major clashes in Egypt after dawn Saturday, following a night of street battles that added to an overall death toll of at least 75 in the past week.

Later, in the northern part of Sinai peninsula, gunmen shot dead a Christian priest while he shopped for food in an outdoor market on Saturday.

It was not immediately clear if the shooting was linked to the political crisis, but there has been a backlash against Christians since just before and after Morsi's ouster. Attacks have occurred on members of the minority by Islamists in at least three provinces south of Egypt. Christians account for about 10 per cent of Egypt's 90 people. Morsi's Brotherhood and hard-line allies claim the Christians played a big part in inciting against the ousted leader.

Near the main pro-Morsi gathering in Cairo, security forces boosted their presence in a sign of possible crackdowns ahead.

But it did not deter thousands of people braving a merciless summer sun in a sit-in outside the Rabia al-Adwaiya mosque in the Nasr City district, traditionally a Muslim Brotherhood stronghold.

They hoisted posters of Morsi. Volunteers with tanks of ice water strapped on their backs sprayed participants to cool them off.

There were smaller crowds of Morsi supporters elsewhere in Cairo, including about 2,000 outside the headquarters of the Republican Guard, where Morsi was first confined by the military before he was taken to an undisclosed Defence Ministry facility. Soldiers in full combat gear watched from behind razor wire.

Late Friday, violence erupted in central Cairo as the rival camps clashed on a bridge over the Nile River. Gunfire crackled in the streets and flames leaped from a burning car. The chaotic scenes ended only after the army rushed in with armoured vehicles to separate the feuding groups.

The clashes had intensified after the supreme leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Badie, defiantly proclaimed his followers would not give up street action until the toppled president's return to office.

"God make Morsi victorious and bring him back to the palace," Brotherhood chief Mohammed Badie proclaimed Friday before cheering supporters at a Cairo mosque in his first appearance since the overthrow. "We are his soldiers we defend him with our lives."

Hours later, his deputy, Khairat el-Shater, considered the most powerful figure in the organization, was arrested in a Cairo apartment along with his brother on allegations of inciting violence, Interior Ministry spokesman Hani Abdel-Latif told The Associated Press. Two senior leaders of the Brotherhood were released from detention on Friday pending the completion of an investigation into their alleged role in inciting violence.

Mohammed Sultan, deputy head of the national ambulance service, said at least 36 people were killed in Friday's clashes, the highest death toll in one day since the protests began last Sunday. Another 1,076 were injured.

In his first public appearance since he was sworn in, Mansour was photographed at the Muslim Friday prayers, which he performed at a mosque near his house in a suburb west of Cairo.

"I want everyone to pray for me. Your prayers are what I need from you," he told worshippers who approached him to shake his hand and wish him well, according to the independent daily el-Tahrir.

The paper said the president spoke to its reporter in a brief interview after the prayer. The president's office could not be immediately reached to confirm the comments.

"We all need national reconciliation and we will work to realize it," the newspaper quoted him as saying. "Egypt is for everyone."

On Saturday, a Cairo court adjourned to Aug. 17 the retrial of former President Hosni Mubarak over charges of corruption and involvement in the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising that ousted him.

Mubarak and his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, who are on trial for corruption, appeared at the court session.

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Associated Press writers Paul Schemm and Mariam Rizk contributed to this report.

In a major speech at Georgetown University, Obama warned Americans of the deep and disastrous effects of climate change, urging them to take action before it's too late.

"As a president, as a father and as an American, I'm here to say we need to act," Obama said.

Obama announced he was directing his administration to launch the first-ever federal regulations on heat-trapping gases emitted by new and existing power plants "to put an end to the limitless dumping of carbon pollution."

Other aspects of the plan will boost renewable energy production on federal lands, increase efficiency standards and prepare communities to deal with higher temperatures.

Even before Obama unveiled his plan Tuesday, Republican critics in Congress were lambasting it as a job-killer that would threaten the economic recovery. Obama dismissed those critics, noting the same arguments have been used in the past when the U.S. has taken other steps to protect the environment.

"That's what they said every time," Obama said. "And every time, they've been wrong."

Obama also offered a rare insight into his administration's deliberations on Keystone XL, an oil pipeline whose potential approval has sparked an intense fight between environmental activists and energy producers.

The White House has insisted the State Department is making the decision independently, but Obama said Tuesday he's instructing the department to approve it only if the project won't increase overall, net emissions of greenhouse gases.

"Allowing the Keystone pipeline to be built requires a finding that doing so would be in our nation's interests," Obama said. "Our national interest would be served only if this project does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution."

A top aide to House Speaker John Boehner said the remarks indicated that the pipeline should be approved.

"The standard the president set today should lead to speedy approval of the Keystone pipeline," Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said.

Still, environmentalist took heart in Obama's remarks, noting it was the first time the administration had directly linked approval of the pipeline to its effect on pollution. The White House has previously resisted efforts by environmental groups to link the Keystone project to broader effort curb carbon pollution from power plants.

Obama touted America's strengths research, technology and innovation as factors that make the U.S. uniquely poised to take on the challenges of global warming. He mocked those who deny that humans are contributing to the warming of the planet, adding that he "doesn't have much patience" for anybody who refuses to acknowledge the problem.

"We don't have time for a meeting of the flat-earth society," Obama said.

Obama's far-reaching plan marks the president's most prominent effort yet to deliver on a major priority he laid out in his first presidential campaign and recommitted to at the start of his second term: to fight climate change in the U.S. and abroad and prepare American communities for its effects. Environmental activists have been irked that Obama's high-minded goals never materialized into a comprehensive plan.

By expanding permitting on public lands, Obama hopes to generate enough electricity from renewable energy projects such as wind and solar to power the equivalent of 6 million homes by 2020, effectively doubling the electric capacity federal lands now produce. He also set a goal to install 100 megawatts of energy-producing capacity at federal housing projects by the end of the decade.

Obama also announced $8 billion in federal loan guarantees to spur investment in technologies that can keep carbon dioxide produced by power plants from being released into the atmosphere.

But the linchpin of Obama's plan is the controls on new and existing power plants. Forty percent of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, and one-third of greenhouse gases overall, come from electric power plants, according to the federal Energy Information Administration. The Obama administration already has proposed controls on new plants, but those controls have been delayed and not yet finalized.

Tuesday's announcement came just weeks after Obama's nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Gina McCarthy, assured senators during her confirmation process that the EPA was "not currently" developing any regulations on existing sources of greenhouse gases. McCarthy said if EPA were to look at such regulations, it would allow states, the public and others to "offer meaningful input on potential approaches."

Republicans quickly dismissed Obama's plan, calling it a "war on coal" and a "war on jobs," reflecting the opposition to climate legislation on Capitol Hill that prompted a frustrated Obama to sidestep lawmakers and take action himself.

"It's tantamount to kicking the ladder out from beneath the feet of many Americans struggling in today's economy," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on the floor of the Senate.

Environmental groups offered a mix of praise and wariness that Obama would follow through on the ambitious goals he laid out. Bill Snape of the Center for Biological Diversity described it as too little, too late.

"What he's proposing isn't big enough, doesn't move fast enough, to match the terrifying magnitude of the climate crisis," Snape said.

Others hailed the plan, galvanized by the fact that Obama was taking action on his own after Congress' reluctance to tackle the issue using legislation.

"The president nailed it: this can't wait," said Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council. "We will cut this carbon pollution today so our children don't inherit climate chaos tomorrow."

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