Pelosi, US House farm chief discuss climate bill

WASHINGTON, June 2 (Reuters) - Speaker Nancy Pelosi met the House Agriculture Committee chairman on Tuesday to discuss the climate change bill that he opposes but which is a priority for House Democrats this year.

The Agriculture Committee is among eight committees with the right to review the climate bill. The bill would cut industrial emissions of greenhouse gases by 17 percent by 2020.

During a news conference, Pelosi said she met Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson and Charles Rangel, chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, on the climate bill. She said she was optimistic of action on the bill in coming weeks.

Agriculture Committee aides had no immediate comment on the meeting.

Peterson announced opposition to the climate bill a month ago on grounds that he did not trust federal regulators to treat ethanol fairly. Since then, he has filed a bill, backed by 47 other representatives, to change biofuel regulations.

The major changes in the bill would be to make more U.S. land eligible to produce biomass for advanced biofuels and to measure change in U.S. cropland, but not land overseas, in calculating if biofuels reduce greenhouse gases sufficiently.

No date has been set for an Agriculture Committee meeting to examine the climate bill nor have any amendments been made public. (Reporting by Charles Abbott; Editing by Christian Wiessner)