Two more advocacy groups today added their voices to the list of those urging President Obama to step up efforts to combat climate change in his second term.

Scholars at the left-leaning Center for American Progress released a 10-part environmental wish list ahead of Obama's second inauguration Monday, aimed at ensuring that the United States meets its international commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent compared with 2005 levels by 2020.

Clean Air Act rules for power plants, refineries and other sources topped the list. U.S. EPA proposed a carbon dioxide rule for new power plants last year, which is expected to be finalized in the next few months. But a rule for existing power plants is running behind schedule, and there is little information about what it might look like.

Senior fellow Daniel Weiss and Jackie Weidman, who penned the CAP list, pointed to a recent proposal by the Natural Resources Defense Council that would create differentiated standards for power plants in different states. They said it would help significantly close the gap between current U.S. emissions and the 2020 target.

The two also urged adoption of a price on carbon, perhaps in the form of a progressively designed carbon tax that would rebate some revenue to low- and middle-income consumers.

Weiss and Weidman also urged the White House to reject the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry fuel from Alberta oil sands to the Gulf Coast. The two said the pipeline would counteract the vehicle fuel economy standards the administration often touts as its principal environmental achievement of the first term.

"President Obama has already approved several unprecedented measures to reduce carbon pollution from vehicles," Weiss and Weidman wrote. "This progress, however, could be undone by the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline."

While Obama will have the final say on whether the controversial project goes forward, the State Department will first sign off on a supplemental environmental impact statement. Weiss said in a recent interview that the nomination of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), a leading Senate voice on climate change, to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of State makes it less likely that Keystone will get the nod from State.

Also today, a coalition of 21 groups with Latino membership said in an open letter to the president that climate and air quality concerns are of particular importance to that politically sought-after demographic.

"This election made it clear that Latinos want a strong economy, immigration reform and a bright and healthy future for our children," the coalition wrote.

Latinos are at particular risk for increased smog and other conditions that would be worsened by climate change, the letter said, because they tend to live in areas with a higher concentration of pollution.

"Your Administration's stronger standards for automobile fuel efficiency, limits on mercury from power plants, and carbon standards for new power plants, will benefit all Americans, particularly Latinos, one in two of whom live in counties that violate air pollution standards," they wrote.