Republicans continued Sunday to hammer the House-passed energy bill, calling it a “job-killer” and one that will bring a “light-switch tax” while a White House adviser countered that the GOP was using “inaction as a strategy” to combat the nation’s energy problems.

“We’re trying to solve a problem that has languished for a decade, the problem of energy that has bedeviled us for a long time,” presidential adviser David Axelrod said on ABC’s “This Week.” “And they’re talking about how they can use it as an issue, inaction as somehow a strategy. And that’s not a strategy.”

The House passed legislation (HR 2454) on June 26 that would overhaul the nation’s energy policy and curb global warming, handing President Obama a landmark legislative victory on one of his top priorities.

The bill passed 219-212, with eight Republican “yes” votes tipping the balance. Forty-four Democrats voted against it.

In a June 19 report, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the House legislation would cost households an average of $175 a year in 2020.

“For lower-income people it actually will be a net gain because they’ll get some help with their energy bill,” Axelrod said. “So I think this is a phony issue.

“And the real issue is, what is the Republican strategy for creating jobs? This bill actually, they call it a job killer, it will create millions of green jobs, the jobs of the future,” he added.” We’ve lost millions of jobs in the recession that began last year and continues. What is their strategy for that? What is their strategy for reducing our dependence on foreign oil? And how are we going to deal with this issue of carbon pollution that threatens people’s health and the planet?”

On the same program, Sen. Charles E. Grassley , R-Iowa, noting that the CBO is “like God around Washington when they say something,” said the $175 figure is not the real issue.

“We had economists telling us that when you filter all of these increases in energy through every step of the economy, manufacturing a product or whatever services might come, we have come out with about $3,000 for a family of four,” he said. “Now I won’t argue $175 vs. $3,000 because that’s not the most important issue. You’ve got to look at what is happening to our economy if we put this very strong tax on energy. The people that have been complaining for 10 years about the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs to China are the very same ones pushing cap and trade.”

The action on energy legislation now moves to the Senate, and Axelrod said he believed “will probably be dealt with in the fall” after work is completed on health care overhaul.

Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell , R-Ky., said, “I hope it won’t pass the Senate. The president himself said last year it will lead to skyrocketing electricity increases. Think of it as a light switch tax. ... I think it’s going to lead to significant increases in electricity across America in an effort to try to deal with a global problem.”

McConnell said if “we do have a global warming problem, and many people believe we do, we need to target it on a global basis. The way to get at it is to build more nuclear power plants which don’t have a CO2 emission problem and to develop the kind of technology to burn coal cleanly.”

Grassley also noted the global scope of the problem and its possible effects on U.S. employment.