Obama Climate Adviser: 'War on Coal Is Exactly What's Needed'

A "war on coal is exactly what's needed," according to Daniel Schrag, a White House climate adviser and director of the Harvard University Center for the Environment.

Speaking ahead of President Barack Obama's major climate-change address at Georgetown University, Schrag — a geochemist and a member of a presidential science panel that helped advise Obama on climate change — told The New York Times he hoped the president's speech would mark a turning point in the national debate on climate change.

"Everybody is waiting for action," he said. "The one thing the president really needs to do now is to begin the process of shutting down the conventional coal plants. Politically, the White House is hesitant to say they're having a war on coal. On the other hand, a war on coal is exactly what's needed."

Obama is expected to set forth sweeping proposals for setting goals and timetables for a series of executive actions to reduce greenhouse-gas pollution and address the issue of global warming.