INTERVIEW-UPDATE 1-Obama open to discussion about CO2 rules

* Obama hopes for legislation this year
* White House evaluating Waxman-Markey bill
* Signals flexibility on auctioning permits

(adds quotes, background on CO2 trading)
By Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON, April 14 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack
Obama hopes to get a climate change bill on his desk this year
and is open to discussing how stringent the rules of a carbon
emissions trading system should be for industry, a top adviser
said on Tuesday.
Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of the White House Council on
Environmental Quality, said the Obama administration was still
studying the main climate bill in the U.S. Congress and would
look at other proposals that may crop up in the coming months.
"The president asked for a bill to be sent to him this year
and that's, I think, still the hope," she told Reuters in an
interview.
U.S. Representatives Edward Markey and Henry Waxman, both
Democrats, introduced a bill in March that would cut U.S.
emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas linked to
climate change, by 20 percent through 2020.
The Waxman-Markey bill would achieve that with a
"cap-and-trade" system, which would limit the amount of CO2
that power plants or industrial users could emit. Those who cut
their emissions below their allotment could sell their unused
credits.
Sutley said the White House was "still evaluating the bill
and looking forward to working through the legislative
process."
She said the administration was open to negotiating what
percentage of permits in a greenhouse gas emissions trading
system should be sold or auctioned to industry.
"I think it's an area for discussion," she said when asked
about Obama's flexibility on his demand, articulated during the
presidential campaign, for 100 percent auctioning.
She said the administration had not reached a "bottom line"
on that issue.
A U.S. cap and trade system is slated to be in place by
2012, but Sutley said it was too early to say when that system
could link up with an already-established one in the European
Union. EU officials are eager to have a U.S. system in place so
the European scheme could expand and establish an international
carbon market.
(Editing by Eric Beech)
((jeff.mason@reuters.com; Reuters Messaging:
jeff.mason.reuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: OBAMA/CLIMATE

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