Reid: Don’t overanalyze SOTU for climate clues

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Thursday that Democrats are not backing away from climate change despite the absence of specific pleas in President Obama’s State of the Union speech to cap greenhouse gas emissions.

Obama called for “comprehensive” energy and climate change legislation – which is climate-speak for including emissions-cutting requirements – but did not mention cap-and-trade or other emissions proposals.

“That was a pretty broad speech. I think it was long enough,” said Reid of Obama’s 70-minute address when asked about the omission.

“We are going to do an energy bill,” Reid added at a briefing. “Any energy bill we do will have to look at carbon.” How that’s accomplished will be determined in the future, Reid said.

But Obama's chief political adviser appeared to downplay the importance of climate change in the State of the Union address in a short interview after the speech.

"I don't know. There was a couple of paragraphs," Axelrod said after The Hill noted that Obama had mentioned climate change a number of times.

Axelrod also seemed to stress an energy bill over legislation that would include a controversial cap-and-trade mechanism prized by environmental groups.

“I think there is a great deal of support for energy legislation, and the president laid out an aggressive agenda there that includes nuclear, that includes some additional domestic exploration, that also includes alternative energy sources,” he said.

But Gary Guzy, deputy director of the White House Couuncil on Environmental Quality, said this month that the administration remains committed to cap-and-trade.