The Bush administration is not really as opposed to legislation that
would cap greenhouse gas emissions from electric utilities and other
industries as the White House has publicly claimed, a key lawmaker warned
dozens of business executives Thursday.

Representative Rick Boucher of Virginia, the Democratic chairman of the
US House of Representatives Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee, made the
comment at a meeting of the Business Roundtable in Washington.

Boucher told the business leaders that he has had "private conservations"
with key White House officials about global-warming legislation. Those
closed-door talks had a "different tenor" to the staunch opposition that the
White House has publicly voiced against mandatory GHG caps, Boucher said.

According to Boucher, the White House aides said President Bush would
consider signing a mandatory global-warming bill as long as it has significant
support from industry, and is "digestible" for the US economy.

"The public position announced by the White House is no different than it
had been," Boucher said. But the closed-door talks with the administration
have made it clear that Democrats "do not have a red light saying that under
no circumstances would [Bush] sign legislation into law," he said.

The panel Boucher chairs is crafting a global-warming bill that would
require electric utilities and other sectors of the economy to cut their GHG
emissions by 60% to 80% compared with current levels by 2050. The bill could
be introduced before the end of the year, though it could slip into 2008,
Boucher said.

Boucher, who represents a southern Virginia district that is home to
significant coal production, emphasized that his panel's bill would allow
electric utilities to keep using coal for decades to come. He said the GHG
caps in his bill would be "somewhat forgiving" before 2025 and "far more
rigorous" after that point.

--Brian Hansen, brian_hansen@platts.com