Obama calls on Democrats to back "historic" climate change bill

Capitol Hill officials are cautiously optimistic the Waxman-Markey climate change bill will be passed by the House of Representatives this Friday, after President Obama used a press conference to call on wavering Democrats to back the controversial legislation.

Praising the "historic" bill, Obama said the new legislation, which includes binding emissions caps as part of a nationwide cap-and-trade scheme, would lead to a "transformation that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and confront the carbon pollution that threatens our planet".

He also rejected Republican criticism that the bill would impose unbearable costs on the US economy, arguing that the "legislation is paid for by the polluters who currently emit the dangerous carbon emissions that contaminate the water we drink and pollute the air we breathe". He called on those Democrats from agricultural states who remain sceptical about the bill to back the legislation.

Just hours after the president's comments, house Democrats announced they had secured a deal with those representatives calling for more support for agricultural sectors and remained on course for a vote in the full house on Friday.

The deal prompted house majority leader Steny Hoyer to tell reporters that it was now "quite possible and maybe even probable" that the bill would pass the house on Friday and move on to the senate.

Such a vote would be a major coup for both house speaker Nancy Pelosi, who decided this week to pull forward the scheduled vote, and the White House, which has signalled that it wants the legislation passed before the end of the year in order to strengthen its position at the planned international climate change talks in Copenhagen.

The highly orchestrated campaign behind the new bill came as US' climate change envoy Todd Stern poured cold water on hopes that the US could sign up to more demanding emissions targets than the 17 per cent cuts included in the Waxman-Markey bill.

Speaking following a meeting of the world's most polluting countries in Mexico, Stern confirmed arguably the worst kept secret in the UN's Copenhagen negotiation process, announcing that the US would not sign up to calls from developing countries for a 40 per cent cut in emissions by 2020.

"In our judgment [this kind of cut is] not necessary and not feasible given where we are starting from," he said. "So it is not on the cards."