Gore urges passing stimulus deal to aid climate

By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Climate crusader Al Gore said the first step toward restoring U.S. "economic and moral leadership" is to pass President Barack Obama's stimulus package -- and the second step is putting a price on carbon.

"For years our efforts to address the growing climate crisis have been undermined by the idea that we must choose between our planet and our way of life," the former U.S. vice president told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at its first hearing in the new Congress on Wednesday.

"In fact, the solutions to the climate crisis are the very same solutions that will address our economic and national security crises as well," Gore said.

He praised Obama's stimulus plan for its investments in energy efficiency, renewable energy, cars that emit less pollution and the construction of a national power grid to harness alternative energies.

This is the kind of bold action required "to repower our economy, restore American economic and moral leadership in the world and regain control of our destiny," he said.

Gore, who won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change and starred in the Academy Award-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," said the next move after enacting the stimulus package should be to institute a cap-and-trade system for carbon in 2009.

This would allow the United States to go to international climate change talks in December in Copenhagen "with renewed authority to lead the world in shaping a fair and effective treaty," Gore said.

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