By CQ Staff

An energy bill will land on President Obama’s desk “at the end of this first year of Congress,” White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel predicted Sunday.

“We’re going to alter how we deal with our energy policy,” Emanuel said on ABC’s “This Week.” “And what I think is going to happen is that Congress will deal with this part of the energy policy; they’ll deal with the resource investments into alternative energy. They’ll also deal with the way we bring more efficiency into the system. ...I do know this. At the end of this first year of Congress, there will be an energy bill on the president’s desk.”

A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee begins hearings this week on a draft bill addressing climate-change legislation. Full committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman , D-Calif., has said he expects to complete work on a measure, which will probably include a controversial cap-and-trade system to regulate emissions, before Congress leaves for its next break around Memorial Day.

Lawmakers are under heightened pressure to address the issue after the EPA issued a finding that could lead to federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. The agency issued a “proposed endangerment finding” on April 17 that says carbon dioxide and five other gases threaten public health by triggering climate change. The document also says emissions from motor vehicles are contributors to global warming.

The EPA finding was a response to a 2007 Supreme Court decision that found greenhouse gases are pollutants and directed the agency to determine if they threaten the public. The agency will now consider regulations for motor vehicles and possibly electric power plants under the Clean Air Act (PL 101-549).

The draft House bill would limit greenhouse gas emissions, but also pre-empt the EPA from regulating them under several existing standards that apply to conventional pollutants, such as smog and soot.

“The goals are having an energy policy in which America is independent of its tie to foreign oil and having a policy in which America basically has an energy policy that frees itself from exporting $700 billion of wealth to the Mideast,” Emanuel said. “Now, we have to make the decision, which is what the president’s always said, it is better, on an issue of this size and magnitude, and in an effect on the economy, that Congress and the White House come up with a set of policies that deal with greenhouse gas emissions and our energy policy.”

When asked about resistance to the cap-and-trade proposal — those opposed have argued it will lead to a tax increase — Emanuel said, “When you have something of this magnitude, there’s going to be people that raise objections, because it’s a big change. Our goal is to get that done. We will see.

“You’re asking me right before the legislative process starts to make that prediction. I do think this, that even those who object to particulars know that we have to deal with this part of our energy policy and that the challenge now is, rather than to criticize and rather than say no, rather than to say never, is to provide ideas. And that has yet to happen from the other side.”

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner , R-Ohio, also appearing on the program, reiterated his opposition to a cap-and-trade system and said the Republican “all-of-the-above energy strategy from last year continues to be the right approach on energy,” involving a combination of new and old sources including nuclear and “American-made oil and gas.”

When asked about the issue of carbon emissions, which most in the scientific community believe contribute to climate change, Boehner responded that “the idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment is almost comical. Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, you know, when they do what they do, you’ve got more carbon dioxide. ... we’ve had climate change over the last 100 years... The question is how much does man have to do with it, and what is the proper way to deal with this? We can’t do it alone as one nation. If we got India, China and other industrialized countries not working with us, all we’re going to do is ship millions of American jobs overseas.”

Boehner also said Republicans are likely to come up with their own proposals on the issue. “I think you’ll see a plan from us,” he said. “Just like you’ve seen a plan from us on the stimulus bill and a better plan on the budget.”