Obama to Senate: Don’t give up on climate bill

President Obama on Wednesday urged the Senate not to shelve climate change legislation, a day after he acknowledged that the chamber may proceed with a package of energy measures that omits limits on greenhouse gas emissions.

“Don’t give up on that,” Obama said in a televised question-and-answer session with Senate Democrats. “I don’t want us to just say the easy way out is for us to just give a bunch of tax credits to clean energy companies.”

Obama praised the effort by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) to craft a compromise bill that blends emissions limits with new support for nuclear power, low-emissions coal and offshore drilling.

The White House supports a “comprehensive” energy and climate bill that includes a cap-and-trade plan that creates a cost for emitting carbon dioxide, which Obama calls vital to boosting alternative energy.

“The market works best when it responds to price,” Obama said Wednesday.

But imposing mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions faces major Senate hurdles. Obama, at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire Tuesday, for the first time acknowledged that the Senate might drop emissions caps and proceed with only more popular energy provisions.