White House optimistic over climate bill chances

White House officials are increasingly optimistic that they will be able to pass a US climate bill in the coming months following a series of "very encouraging" meetings between key Democrat and Republican senators.

Carol Browner, President Obama's top adviser on climate and energy issues, told news agency Reuters yesterday that the Boxer-Kerry bill working its way through the Senate is making good progress.

"There have been some bipartisan conversations that we find very encouraging, " Browner said. "We are going to continue to do everything in our power to keep this moving."

Browner struck a markedly different tone from her comments earlier this month, when she played down the chances of the bill passing ahead of the UN's Copenhagen climate change summit in December.

However, since then a major push by the White House has appeared to win round a number of opponents to the bill, with at least two Republican senators already signalling that they could vote for the bill if certain concessions to nuclear energy and domestic oil exploration are included.

Browner dismissed the suggestions that the president was reluctant to support an expansion of nuclear power, arguing that nuclear was "something that we believe should be in a comprehensive energy package".

She added that even if the bill does not pass before the Copenhagen summit, sufficient progress would have been made to give the US a strong negotiating position at the talks.

Browner's comments come as a major new poll suggested that while the number of Americans who believe in climate change has fallen significantly in the past two years, there is still substantial support for a US climate bill.

The survey of 1,500 people by the Pew Research Centre for the People & the Press found that only 57 per cent of Americans believe there is solid scientific evidence that the Earth is warming, down from 77 per cent just two years ago. Moreover, only 36 per cent believe that human activity is primarily to blame for global warming.

However, half of respondents supported proposals to put a cap on carbon emissions and charge firms to pollute, suggesting that while there are high levels of scepticism about global warming, the administration's argument that curbing carbon emissions will help bolster energy security is resonating with voters.

Meanwhile, 56 per cent of those polled said they wanted the US to sign up to a global climate change deal.