Obama threatens to curb carbon if Congress fails to address climate

U.S. President Barack Obama (L) walks with Denis McDonough, the White House Chief of Staff, through the colonnade of the White House in Washington February 12, 2013.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is looking for steps his administration could take to limit carbon pollution and prepare cities for climate change, measures that will be considered if Congress fails to act on the issue, senior administration officials told reporters on Tuesday.

Obama proposed on Tuesday to divert some of the royalties from the boom in oil and gas production to invest in research for electric and natural gas vehicles and biofuels, part of a plan to tackle climate change described in his State of the Union speech.

Obama will ask Congress to make the production tax credit for wind, solar and geothermal power permanent and refundable to try to double renewable energy production by 2020, and in his budget in coming weeks, he plans to propose incentives for state governments that take steps to increase energy efficiency.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Mark Felsenthal and Roberta Rampton; Editing by Eric Beech)