Representatives of the United States Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), an alliance of businesses and environmental groups that has called for legislation to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, on Tuesday called on Congress and the incoming Obama administration to pass climate protection legislation next year.

During a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, USCAP members said a market-based cap-and-trade plan is urgently needed to prevent serious impacts from climate change, and could help to kick-start the economy.

“Investment in new technologies and the infrastructure needed for a low-carbon economy are effective ways to generate the jobs and economic growth the U.S. needs to address the current economic crisis,” said Duke Energy CEO James Rogers. “We must position the U.S. to succeed in the new low-carbon, global economy and this is the best way to accomplish that.”

USCAP has in the past called for 60-80% reductions in GHG emissions by 2050. During his campaign Obama said that if he were elected he would implement a cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050. In a videotaped speech played Tuesday at the Governor’s Global Climate Summit in California, Obama said his administration will make a national and international response to climate change a top priority (see related story).

“Americans want clean energy, and we can produce it if there is a federal road map on carbon emissions,” said PNM Resources CEO Jeff Sterba. “Only comprehensive greenhouse gas legislation — one that recognizes the link between energy, the environment, the economy and security — can bring us the clean, affordable and secure energy future we so desperately need.”

USCAP members cited a recent University of Maryland study they said showed that unchecked climate change will strain public budgets and cut growth across all sectors of the economy, and a report from the University of California at Berkeley that found that California’s energy efficiency policies created 1.5 million jobs from 1977 to 2007.

“The economic opportunity embedded within the shift away from fossil fuels is historic,” said NRG Energy CEO David Crane. “For example, think of the enormous fortunes made by those who were on the right side of the shift from the horse to the internal combustion engine. The right climate solution, a moderate price on carbon, can help create real economic opportunities.”

Since election day, Obama has received a flood of advice — some of it contradictory — related to national energy policy (see Daily GPI, Nov. 18; Nov. 14). Last week the leaders of the American Wind Energy Association, Geothermal Energy Association, National Hydropower Association and Solar Energy Industries Association outlined policies they said the new administration should adopt, including a proposed cap-and-trade program.

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy has said it expects energy efficiency to be addressed in an economic stimulus bill as early as this month and believes there is “a very good chance” that a national renewable portfolio standard will be enacted as part of an energy bill in 2009, but climate change legislation — including a cap-and-trade bill calling for an 80% reduction in emissions by 2050 — may have to wait until 2010 or 2011.

USCAP members include Alcoa, BP America, ConocoPhillips, Duke Energy, the Environmental Defense Fund, Exelon, FPL Group, the National Wildlife Federation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, NRG Energy, The Nature Conservancy, PG&E, PNM Resources and Shell.

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