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WASHINGTON— President Bill Clinton marked Earth Day in 1994 by promising to "green" the White House from its landscaping to its copy machines. But President Barack Obamaand his supporters pledged themselves to a far more ambitious goal on Tuesday—combating climate change all over the world.

On Capitol Hill, where Democrats command majorities in both houses of Congress, House Democrats began three full days of hearings on a massive energy and climate-change bill, inviting testimony from three Cabinet secretaries and more than a dozen captains of industry, labor and the environmental movement.

Obama, meantime, prepared to visit a wind turbine manufacturer in Iowa this week to champion his push to cap greenhouse gas emissions and boost renewable alternatives to fossil fuels.

And the political theatrics were only the most visible part of what shapes up to be a frenzied lobbying fight over an issue that pits some of the nation's highest-powered interests against one another in a tangle of coalitions and alliances of convenience. Read More