Obama Aide: Energy Bill Needs Carbon Cap

October 8th, 2009
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By Ayesha Rascoe/Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It would be a “big mistake” for the Congress to approve an energy bill this year without placing a cap on greenhouse emissions, the White House’s top climate and energy adviser said on Wednesday.

“We think that would be a big mistake,” Carol Browner told business leaders at a clean energy forum. “I think you have to keep these programs coordinated because they do impact with each other.”

With climate change legislation facing a tough road to passage in the Senate, some lawmakers have suggested the chamber should instead focus on moving less controversial legislation that would just support renewable energy.

Both the House and Senate bills center around a cap-and-trade system that limits carbon emissions. Companies would need permits for every ton of carbon pollution they release into the atmosphere. Utilities and factories that don’t use all their permits could trade, or sell them, to companies that need more.

 Browner played down the significance of having a climate change bill approved by both chambers and signed into law before international climate negotiations begin in Copenhagen in December to try to hammer out an agreement to replace the 1997 Kyoto protocol on fighting climate change.

 ”We will manage in Copenhagen wherever we are in the process,” Browner said.

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