WASHINGTON - The Obama administration plans to push ahead with plans to aggressively limit greenhouse gas emissions and fight global warming despite fears that the move could further slow the recessionary economy.
Instead of backing away, the administration plans to portray the limits as a boost for America's "clean energy economy," according to congressional leaders and energy experts who have talked with top Obama advisers. The move would spur competitiveness and promote investment in renewable alternatives to imported oil, the government will argue.
At issue is the "cap and trade" initiative, under which the government would set limits on carbon emissions by power plants, factories and other installations but allow those who emit more to buy or trade permits with companies and facilities that emitted less than the prescribed limit.
The idea is that raising the cost of pumping more carbon into the atmosphere would encourage companies and other emitters to cut back, thus reducing a principal cause of global warming.
"If we don't put a price on carbon," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat and chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works committee, "we'll never get these clean energy sources online."
But cap-and-trade would amount to a tax, raising energy costs. And several independent studies have suggested that emissions limits could be a drag on economic growth, a concern raised frequently by opponents of climate change legislation.
"The whole economic issue will be front and center in the debate on this, on both sides," said Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, who has discussed Obama's global warming plans with senior administration officials.
Polls show voters increasingly losing interest in the global warming issue.
By pressing ahead anyway, Obama would be sticking with a program he said during the campaign would be a high priority of his presidency.
"There's a general consensus that things are going to be done with climate" in Washington this year, said Daniel Yergin, the author of the Pulitzer-winning The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power, who recently updated his book with an epilogue on Obama and energy. He added: "We're going to go through a very intense national seminar on cap and trade and carbon tax."
