June 26 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. House passed legislation to limit greenhouse-gas emissions that scientists blame for global warming, a top priority of President Barack Obama intended to create jobs and make the U.S. energy economy more efficient.

The House voted 219-212 for the measure, which would create a cap-and-trade plan of pollution permits to curb emissions. The measure goes to the Senate.

“Global warming is real and it’s moving very rapidly,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman of California said during debate. “Let us not lose this historical opportunity for our national security, for jobs in our country, to make us the leader once again in the international community.” He called the measure “an enormous jobs bill.”

The American Clean Energy and Security Act calls for the U.S. to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.

Obama called the House vote a “historic action” and told reporters he is confident the Senate also will act on the climate issue. The legislation “ushers in a critical transition to a clean energy economy without untenable burdens on the American people,” the president said.

Obama had joined Democratic congressional leaders in lobbying for votes earlier today as the outcome was in doubt. Forty-four Democrats voted against the measure, while eight Republicans were in favor.

Republicans and business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Farm Bureau, sought to drum up opposition to the 1,200-page legislation they called a national energy tax that would eliminate jobs, not create them.

‘Job-Killing Bill’

“This is the biggest job-killing bill that has ever been on the floor of the House of Representatives,” said Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio, who spoke against the bill for about an hour. He said the U.S. should increase drilling of oil and gas while working to create alternative sources of energy.

Republican Frank Lucas of Oklahoma called the measure “the single largest economic threat to our farmers and ranchers in decades,” saying it would increase their energy costs. “I will not make my constituents poorer so others can get richer at their expense,” he said.

Democrats turned back a Republican amendment from Representative Randy Forbes of Virginia that would have substituted a research summit on clean energy for the Democrats’ plan.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, who negotiated revisions that brought many rural lawmakers on board, said he was voting for the measure although it still has “problems” he considers “unworkable.”

‘Too Complex’

“It is too complex, the way they’ve structured this and the deals they’ve cut,” said Peterson, a Minnesota Democrat.

Democrats say the bill would create 1.7 million new jobs, save 240 million barrels of oil by 2020, and require in most cases that states get 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources such as wind and the sun by then. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the measure would cost an average of $175 a year per household.

The measure would boost investment in new energy sources by financing research and providing $10 billion to develop technology to capture emissions from burning coal. Utilities would get free greenhouse-gas pollution permits to aid investment in renewable energy sources. A $30 billion revolving loan fund would support small and mid-sized clean-energy manufacturing efforts.

Aid to Polluters

The bill’s chief sponsors, Waxman and Democrat Edward Markey of Massachusetts, agreed to reduce its environmental mandates and increase aid to polluters, including coal-fired power plants, to help companies meet the measure’s clean-air regulations. That wasn’t enough, though, to guarantee the support of all Democrats from rural districts.

Jim Owens, chief executive officer of Peoria, Illinois- based Caterpillar Inc., opposed the measure in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California that said, “We advocate coordinated international action rather than unilateral U.S. action on climate and energy.”

In pushing for the bill, environmental groups generated about 200,000 calls to about 90 congressional offices this week and are making about 400 more today, Sierra Club spokesman Josh Dorner said.

Former Vice President Al Gore, who won a Nobel prize for his work on climate change, was calling lawmakers from his Nashville home on behalf of the bill. AFL-CIO chief lobbyist Bill Samuel said the union group supported the plan, even as he called it “not perfect.”

Energy Scientists

Even so, a coalition of energy scientists, in a letter to lawmakers, called the measure’s investment in renewable energy “inadequate.”

Joining the American Farm Bureau, the nation’s largest farm lobby, in opposition was a coalition of food processing groups including the National Chicken Council and the National Meat Association.

One critic, billionaire investor Warren Buffett, head of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc., has called the plan “regressive.”

U.S. Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President Bruce Josten urged lawmakers to vote against it because he said it wouldn’t ensure development of enough renewable energy sources to make up for the required reduction in fossil-fuel emissions.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lorraine Woellert at lwoellert@bloomberg.net; Simon Lomax in Washington at slomax@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 26, 2009 20:13 EDT