Prospects improve for massive climate bill

An agreement on a string of demands sought by farmers and lawmakers from rural areas erased a major obstacle to the legislation. A pair of favorable reports on the economic effect of the bills also have eased some Democratic lawmakers’ concerns, supporters of the legislation said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat of California, has vowed to take up the bill, which would set limits on greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels, before lawmakers adjourn at week’s end for their July 4 holiday recess.

A vote was tentatively scheduled for tomorrow.

Most Republicans are expected to oppose the legislation, prompting an intense effort by Pelosi and the bill’s leading sponsors to draw in reluctant Democrats with a string of concessions - mostly aimed at defusing GOP claims that the legislation amounts to a massive energy tax on average Americans and will cut US jobs.

“Both of those bubbles have been bursted,’’ Democratic Representative Michael Doyle of Pennsylvania told reporters yesterday. He said lawmakers are becoming convinced the bill will create “green’’ energy jobs and mitigate the economic impact for energy-intensive industries such as those in his state. “We have been taking people out of the `no’ column, into the `undecided’ column, into the `yes’ column,’’ said Doyle. “The momentum is coming to yes.’’

But some Democrats, especially freshman lawmakers who took seats away from Republican incumbents, were reportedly remaining on the fence.

Among the holdouts have been farm-state legislators concerned that farmers would suffer from high energy costs.

But Democratic Representative Collin Peterson of Minnesota, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, urged support for the bill yesterday after he won several concessions that he said would benefit agriculture and ease the effect of higher energy costs on people living in rural areas.

“We think we have something here that can work with agriculture,’’ Peterson told reporters. “I think we’ll be able to get the votes to pass this.’’

The House bill, covering more than 1,100 pages, would require a 17 percent reduction of greenhouse gases - mainly carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels such as coal - by 2020 from 2005 levels and about an 80 percent reduction by mid-century. While it would cap climate-changing pollution, the bill also would allow polluters to buy and sell emission allowances within the economy as a way to ease the cost of compliance.

A cosponsor of the bill, Representative Edward Markey of Massachusetts. said the White House “is making it very clear they want this legislation.’’