While speaking at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire last week, President Obama acknowledged that it is conceivable that an energy bill may be approved in the Senate without the cap-and-trade component that he has been pushing since taking office last year.
"The only thing I would say about it is this: We may be able to separate these things out," said Obama. "And it’s conceivable that that’s where the Senate ends up."
Also known as emissions trading, cap-and-trade legislation would set a limit on the amount of pollutants that a company can emit, and would then force that company to purchase credits if they exceed their allotment.
Senate moderates from both sides of the aisle have recently pushed Obama to accept an energy-only bill that does not include the emissions trading component, which exists in the House bill that was passed last year, according to The New York Times.
Meanwhile, a White House spokesman quickly downplayed the president’s remarks, stating that they were only an "observation" and that "nothing has changed" since his State of the Union address last week. 