Obama open to discussion about CO2 rules

By Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON (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 the cap and trade 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.