1/26: The EPA

• The EPA will allow states to set tougher emissions standards

WASHINGTON “" President Obama will direct federal regulators on Monday to move swiftly on an application by California and 13 other states to set strict automobile emission and fuel efficiency standards, two administration officials said Sunday.

The directive makes good on an Obama campaign pledge and signifies a sharp reversal of Bush administration policy. Granting California and the other states the right to regulate tailpipe emissions would be one of the most emphatic actions Mr. Obama could take to quickly put his stamp on environmental policy.

• Auto execs laud the move, citing “new sheriff in town.”

• Nationalizing the country’s banks is getting a renewed, serious look from the administration.

• Climate change envoy announced.

WASHINGTON, Jan 26 (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department is expected to name Todd Stern, a senior White House official under former President Bill Clinton, as its climate change envoy, two people familiar with the decision said on Monday.

The people said the announcement could come as early as Monday, when U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration plans to announce steps to raise fuel efficiency standards. Stern coordinated the Clinton administration’s Initiative on Global Climate Change from 1997 to 1999 and acted as the senior White House negotiator in the Kyoto negotiations on climate change.

• Al-Qaeda is panicking because Obama is so popular.

The torrent of hateful words is part of what terrorism experts now believe is a deliberate, even desperate, propaganda campaign against a president who appears to have gotten under al-Qaeda’s skin. The departure of George W. Bush deprived al-Qaeda of a polarizing American leader who reliably drove recruits and donations to the terrorist group.

With Obama, al-Qaeda faces an entirely new challenge, experts say: a U.S. president who campaigned to end the Iraq war and to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and who polls show is well liked throughout the Muslim world.