Paper: Obama administration dedicated to "clean energy economy"

Special Report:

Barack Obama: The 44th U.S.

President

U.S. President Barack Obama while signing executive orders about the closing

of the military prison at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo, Cuba,

in the Oval Office on second official day at White House in Washington,

January 22, 2009. (Chinese media/Reuters Photo)
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LOS ANGELES, Jan. 25 (Chinese media) -- The Obama

administration is pushing forward with plans to aggressively limit greenhouse

gas emissions and fight global warming, it was reported on Sunday.

The plans would include a cap-and-trade initiative to

limit greenhouse gases and raise the cost of pumping more carbon into the

atmosphere, the Los Angeles Times said.

Under the initiative, the government would set limits

on carbon emissions by power plants, factories and other installations, but

allow those who emit more to buy or trade permits with companies and facilities

that emitted less than the prescribed limit, according to the paper.

But the move would amount to a tax, raising energy

costs. And several independent studies have suggested that emissions limits

would only increase energy price and be a drag on economic growth, at least in

the short term.

Despite such fears, the Obama government believed

that a "clean energy economy" move would spur competition and promote investment

in renewable alternatives to imported oil.

The administration is expected to move forward with a

two-pronged effort to stimulate renewable energy supplies and ensure demand for

the megawatts they'd produce, said the paper.

The first is to invest heavily in wind power, solar

power and biofuels through the massive stimulus bill, while the second is to

help those forms of energy compete with cheaper fossil fuels by pumping up

fossil fuel costs to reflect the potential economic damage from a warmed Earth,

according to the paper.

"If we don't put a price on carbon," said Democratic

Senator Barbara Boxer, chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee.

"we'll never get these clean energy sources on line."

Instead of dragging the economy, the plan to limit

greenhouse emissions would stimulate the economy and "allow polluters to

transition from a high-polluting environment to a low-polluting environment,"

said Andy Stevenson, a former hedge fund manager who is now a finance advisor

for the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York.