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Administration Rephrasing Cap-and-Trade

The Obama Administration is beginning to talk more about clean energy legislation and tying it to job creation and less about Cap-and-Trade. At Wednesday's clean energy forum, White House energy and climate adviser Carole Browner stressed the need for legislation to eliminate dependence on foreign oil, put a price signal on carbon emissions and mandate an increase in electricity from renewable sources. She said this is about creating a new generation of clean energy jobs that will position the U.S. in a global market, and legislation is needed to do that.

Meanwhile, White House officials say increased spending on alternative energy research will emerge relatively unscathed from the President's proposed spending freeze. Rob Nabors, deputy director of the White House's Office of Management and Budget says that not everything in the budget is of equal importance to the country. Those things that are the most important to the President, the things like education and energy research are at the top of the list.

Senators leading efforts to write a bipartisan climate bill have signaled they will keep pushing hard for legislation that would curb emissions of greenhouse gases and boost development of alternative energy.