VINACHEM

President Barack Obama Wednesday said the US has a "responsibility"to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from energy companies, motor vehicles andother sectors of the economy that scientists say are contributing to globalclimate change.

But in his first news conference since winning re-election last week,Obama said the US must reduce emissions in a way that does not make it harderfor the country to recover from the years-long global economic crisis.

"If the message is somehow we're going to ignore jobs and growth simplyto address climate change, I don't think anybody's gonna go for that," Obamasaid. "I won't go for that."
Obama specifically downplayed the prospect of the US imposing aso-called "carbon tax" on power plants, oil refineries and other smokestackindustries, which some lawmakers and advocacy groups say could help the UScombat climate change while simultaneously raising new revenue to help paydown America's massive national debt.

Obama said he doesn't expect Congress to endorse a carbon tax as part ofa package of policies to address the so-called "fiscal cliff," which refersto trillions of dollars in economically harmful tax hikes and mandatoryspending cuts that will take effect on December 31 unless lawmakers and theWhite House strike a deal to either circumvent or postpone them.

"That I'm pretty certain of," Obama said. "And, look, we're still tryingto debate whether we can just make sure the middle-class families don't geta tax hike. Let's see if we can resolve that. That should be easy. [Climatechange is] hard."

Obama said he intended to put forth a new policy for addressing climatechange "in the coming months and years."

But he said that in the next several weeks and months, he would seek tofoster "a wide-ranging conversation with scientists, engineers, and electedofficials to find out what more can we do to make short-term progress inreducing carbon." That conversation would help policymakers to determine"what realistically can we do long term to make sure that this is notsomething we're passing on to future generations that's going to be veryexpensive and very painful to deal with," he said.

Environmental groups that want the US to do more to reduce energy sectorGHG emissions had a mixed response to Obama's comments. Forecast the Facts, aWashington-based advocacy group, said it was pleased that Obama drew a connection between climate change and the recent spate of severe weatherevents, including the hurricane that hit the US Northeast earlier this month.But the group said it was disappointed with Obama's plan to postponeserious action on climate change until the US fully recovers from itseconomic woes.

"President Obama is right that 'natural' disasters such as SuperstormSandy are influenced by human activities, namely the burning of fossil fuelsby carbon profiteers," said Brad Johnson, the group's campaign manager. "Butthe president's assertion that addressing climate change should be secondaryto concerns about the economy is a gross disappointment and an insult to thedeep suffering of the millions of victims of climate disasters across thisnation."

Johnson called the fiscal cliff debate that is currently playing out inWashington a "manufactured crisis," saying that climate change is "the mosturgent threat to our national safety and economic well-being."