U.S. House climate control negotiations intensify

By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Negotiations in the U.S. House of Representatives on how to cut industrial pollutants that cause global warming reach a critical stage this week as President Barack Obama huddles with key lawmakers on Tuesday and Republicans ready for a fight.

A House Energy and Commerce panel hopes to fill in details later this week on a bill that aims to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases 20 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050 -- using 2005 as a base year.

A White House official said the meeting between Obama and some Democratic members of the panel would review provisions being negotiated by lawmakers, as well as the timetable for moving the controversial legislation through the House.

"Various sources are telling us progress is being made in the (negotiating) room," said Manik Roy of the Pew Center on Climate Change, which supports "cap and trade" legislation that would impose the new limits on pollutants.

Tony Kreindler, of the Environmental Defense Fund, added lawmakers were "still very much in the thick of the negotiations."

Aides to key lawmakers would not provide details on the negotiations, which continued over last weekend.

Eben Burnham-Snyder, a spokesman for Representative Edward Markey, would not say whether a key subcommittee will convene this week to fill in details of the bill. Markey, along with House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, is leading the drive.

The goal of cap and trade, a system that has been successfully used to control "acid rain" pollution in the northeastern United States, is to encourage industries to use energy sources that emit less carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Those sources could be wind, nuclear and solar power and other alternative energy, as well as cleaner coal that supporters hope can be developed.