Bush would veto U.S. climate change bill

By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Even before debate began on Monday on the first comprehensive climate change bill to reach the U.S. Senate floor, the White House said President George W. Bush would veto it in its current form.

Bush himself slammed the bill, saying it would cost the U.S. economy $6 trillion. His estimate drew quick denials from those who support the legislation, including Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat and longtime environmentalist.

The Bush administration has consistently opposed economy-wide measures to limit climate-warming emissions of carbon dioxide. The United States is alone among major developed countries in rejecting the carbon-capping Kyoto Protocol, which sets more stringent targets than the bill headed for Senate debate.

"I urge the Congress to be very careful about running up enormous costs for future generations of Americans," Bush said at a White House meeting on the economy and taxes. "We'll work with the Congress, but the idea of a huge spending bill fueled by tax increases isn't the right way to proceed."

He said the bill, known as the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act and set for its first debate in the Senate late on Monday, "would impose roughly $6 trillion of new costs on the American economy."

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Bush would veto the bill if it arrived on his desk as currently drafted, but added, "It's very unlikely to pass the Senate anyway."

Most Capitol Hill observers acknowledge the bill is highly unlikely to become law before Bush leaves the White House in January.

FENCE-SITTERS IN THE SENATE

The number of uncommitted senators is impressive, said Jeremy Symons of the National Wildlife Federation.

"The fence is so crowded you can hear it creaking," Symons said of the fence-sitters on global warming legislation.

Some estimates have put the number of uncommitted senators at up to 20 -- one-fifth of the 100-member Senate.

The bill's supporters maintain that the legislation's cap-and-trade provisions would create jobs and that the cost of doing nothing about climate change justifies action now.

Carbon dioxide, which is emitted by fossil-fueled vehicles and coal-fired power plants as well as from natural sources, is a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.

Boxer, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and who has shepherded this legislation to the Senate floor, offered a blistering response to Bush's comments.

"Just when we finally have a chance to get off of Big Oil and foreign oil, you can count on the Bush administration to fight us every step of the way," she said in a statement. "Where were they when gas prices went to 250 percent of what they were at the start of this administration? They did nothing."