U.S. House Leaders Schedule Climate-Change Bill Vote (Update2)

By Simon Lomax

June 23 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. House of Representatives plans to vote on a proposed “cap-and-trade” law to cut greenhouse gas emissions by the end of this week, a spokesman for Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

“There are some issues still under discussion, but we are confident we can resolve them by the time the bill goes to the floor on Friday,” Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said by e-mail.

Democrats have been negotiating the details of the climate- change measure, which would cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, since it passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee on May 21.

In his February budget request, President Barack Obama called for a cap-and-trade program to cut U.S. greenhouse gases 14 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

The White House said yesterday that Obama’s Cabinet members will travel across the U.S. this week to rally support for cap- and-trade legislation.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, a California Democrat and the lead author of the climate-change bill, has been negotiating for weeks with members of his own party who represent agricultural regions of the U.S.

Led by House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, a Minnesota Democrat, the dissenting lawmakers said Waxman’s bill was unfair to farmers and rural communities.

Farm-State Democrats

The farm-state Democrats said they wanted more of the carbon dioxide permits created under the cap-and-trade program given freely to the non-profit utilities that serve rural areas.

They also said the climate-change bill should give farmers more credit for reducing emissions through changed soil and land management practices, often called greenhouse gas “offsets.”

Peterson has agreed that “this historic climate change and clean energy jobs bill” should be voted on this week, Hammill said. April Slayton, communications director of the Agriculture Committee, said Peterson wasn’t available for comment.

Under cap-and-trade, the federal government would set a limit, or cap, on greenhouse gases from most sectors of the economy. The cap would be divided into billions of permits that each carry the right to emit one metric ton of carbon dioxide, the most prevalent of the greenhouse gases that scientists say contribute to global warming.

Power plants, factories, oil refineries and other regulated sources would be forced to acquire enough permits to cover their emissions and surrender them to the Environmental Protection Agency. Before the permits are surrendered to EPA, they could be bought and sold in a market similar to the emissions trading system that has been operating in Europe since 2005.

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

Last Updated: June 23, 2009 10:52 EDT

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