For a moment, passersby might think they’d stumbled over an event held by Al Gore’s acolytes Wednesday, given the talk about “clean energy”, “saving the planet” and “developing renewables.”

“This is the best way to clean up the earth and leave a better planet for our children,” was a typical remark. But the speaker wasn’t the former vice president — it was House Republican Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia, one of the GOP leaders who rolled out what they described as their alternative to the renewable power and climate change measure (HR 2454) that House Democratic leaders want to bring to the floor this summer.

“This bill says Republicans are environmentalists, too,” said Cantor, standing with a clutch of GOP leaders in front of a large green placard touting the bill as “clean and reliable energy independence.”

Most of the provisions are familiar, repurposed from an oil-and-gas drilling bill that Republican leaders touted last summer in a campaign built around the message of “drill here, drill now!”

“It’s a similar foundation to that bill,” said Texas Rep. Joe Barton, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and one of the oil industry’s strongest advocates in Congress. “We’ve added a few pieces on renewables and alternatives.”

The core of the Republican measure is a title that would dramatically expand oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, but the words “drill” and “oil” were hardly mentioned the rollout.

Instead, Republicans cast their energy message using phrases and talking points ripped from the Democratic playbook, with lawmakers like Barton, Minority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio and Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana stressing the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and tackle climate change. They did so even though Barton and Pence regularly question whether carbon emissions from human activity are driving climate change.

But Republicans appear to be positioning themselves to advance another pillar of their energy platform: expanding production of nuclear power.

Although the Obama administration has generally given lukewarm signals about nuclear energy, the technology is currently the only widely deployed energy source that does not produce the carbon emissions associated with global warming.

Republicans drew attention to a nuclear title in their legislation that calls for bringing 100 new nuclear reactors online in the next 20 years, and a resumption of construction of a federal nuclear waste dump at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. Obama wants to cut funding for Yucca and launch a search for a new site.

“Nuclear power has to be a strong part of our clean energy strategy,” said Energy and Commerce member John Shimkus , R-Ill., who vigorously opposes the climate change bill sponsored by the committee’s chairman, Democrat Henry A. Waxman of California.

The Waxman bill, backed by Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., and Edward J. Markey , D-Mass., would cap greenhouse gas emissions at 17 percent below 2005 levels in 2020, 42 percent below in 2030 and 83 percent below in 2050. A company could buy pollution allowances from another business in lieu of meeting its obligation to reduce emissions. It would also mandate that 20 percent of the nation’s electricity come from renewable sources such as wind and solar, by 2020, although 5 percent of that could come from increased energy efficiency.

The Republican bill has no carbon cap or renewable mandate. It would set up a fund for renewable energy research, to be sustained by royalty payments from new drilling offshore and in the Arctic Coastal Plain.