June 26 (Bloomberg) -- Anadarko Petroleum Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jim Hackett said a “hugely flawed” U.S. legislative bill on climate change would damage the country’s economy through higher prices and job losses.

The Waxman-Markey bill, which was approved today in the House of Representatives, would set up a market for trading pollution permits. Anadarko, based in The Woodlands, Texas, is the second-largest independent oil and natural-gas producer in the U.S., after Devon Energy Corp. The House voted 219-212 for the measure, which now goes to the Senate.

“I think the taxpayers will rue this legislation if it is passed,” Hackett said yesterday in a telephone interview from Houston. “It’s a prescription for disaster for the economy.”

A tax on carbon dioxide would be more straightforward than the bill’s so-called cap-and-trade plan, which seeks to “hide the ball” and targets production instead of consumption, Hackett said. The climate bill would lead to higher energy prices, he said, and “green” jobs would be created at the cost of some conventional work.

“My view is that basically it’s a political expedient to say that they chalked up one for the environmentalists and somehow satisfied the American public that they’ve dealt with climate change, when in fact they’ve done nothing of the kind,” he said.

Senate Prospects

Hackett, 55, said it’s too early to tell if the votes will be there for Senate passage. He said the bill is “hugely flawed,” as shown by the fact that it was “rushed” through the process. He called for increased conservation and more use of natural gas in vehicles and power plants. Nuclear energy also should be considered for future U.S. needs, Hackett said.

“At the end of the day, American businesses and American citizens expect their leaders to be sensible and to be intellectually honest and to be straightforward, and I don’t think that that’s what’s happening with our leaders,” he said.

The bill’s chief sponsors are House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, and Representative Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat. The measure, known as the American Clean Energy and Security Act, calls for the U.S. to cut so-called greenhouse-gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.

Anadarko rose 57 cents to $46.07 in composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

To contact the reporter on this story: Edward Klump in Houston at eklump@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 26, 2009 19:57 EDT