UPDATE 1-Nike, Starbucks calling for new US climate policy

(Adds quotes from conference call, USCAP background)

LOS ANGELES, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Nike Inc (NKE.N), Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O) and investor coalition Ceres are among the founding members of a new coalition calling for strong U.S. climate and energy legislation in early 2009.

The group, named Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy (BICEP), will lobby for policies that encourage energy efficiency, renewable energy use and green job creation, while discouraging higher-polluting technologies.

Other founding members of BICEP include Levi Strauss & Co, Sun Microsystems Inc (JAVA.O) and Timberland Co (TBL.N).

"These companies have a clear message for next year's Congress: move quickly on climate change and create a prosperous green economy and green jobs at the same time," Ceres President Mindy Lubber, said in a statement released Wednesday.

Lubber, speaking with reporters, said the U.S. economy will be "front and center" in discussions with lawmakers.

"The most compelling argument for climate control legislation ... is the economy," Lubber said. "They need to hear from businesses and investors that this will not hurt the economy, that this is indeed good for the economy."

In a news advisory, the group said it would "pressure the U.S. government for action on climate change, upping the ante in a vital discussion that has thus far been dominated by major utilities and manufacturers."

On Tuesday, the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) of 26 corporations and six environmental groups offered its own environmental prescriptions. [ID:nN18191058]

That group -- whose members include AIG, BP America, ConocoPhillips, Chrysler, Duke Energy, the Environmental Defense Fund, Ford, GM, the National Wildlife Federation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, The Nature Conservancy, PepsiCo, Shell and the World Resources Institute -- has been pushing since last year for a cap-and-trade system in line with the Kyoto Protocol, which imposes international emissions limits.

Lubber applauded USCAP's efforts, but said BICEP hoped it could accomplish more. Moreover, because BICEP includes many consumer companies that are not major greenhouse gas producers, its needs differ from those of USCAP members, which Lubber called largely a group of high emitters.

"Their needs, what serves them in a legislative way, are quite different from consumer-facing companies ... who are not the highest emitters," she said.

(Additional reporting by Alexandria Sage) (Reporting by Lisa Baertlein, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)