CHEYENNE - The junior senator from Wyoming, the nation's top coal-producing state, says he will do everything he can to prevent a climate-change bill from passing the Senate.

The "cap and trade" legislation would set limits for gases blamed for global warming - mainly carbon dioxide - while allowing companies to buy and sell permits for emitting greenhouse gases. The bill passed the U.S. House along party lines Friday.

The legislation amounts to a tax on greenhouse emissions and is likely to raise energy costs for consumers, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said Wednesday in an interview with The Associated Press.

"I view the cap-and-trade bill as a cap and tax," he said.

Higher energy costs would damage the already-suffering economy, he said. And the bill is unlikely to affect greenhouse emissions or the climate because it would have no effect on the world's most-polluting countries, including China.

"It's not called U.S. climate change. It's called global climate change," he said.

Barrasso suggested that the bill isn't so much about climate change as it is about increasing the cost of energy from nonrenewable sources, such as coal.

He said many people think the President Barack Obama wants to make renewable energy cheaper.

"He doesn't. He wants to make other forms of energy more expensive," Barrasso argued.

Another complaint Barrasso has with the legislation: It was heavily amended just before passing the House and no one had a chance to read the whole thing before voting on it.

Barrasso said a better approach would be for the federal government to fund prizes for researchers who develop ways to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. He also suggested the government do more to fund technology for burning coal more cleanly.

"What you want to do is find the technology that can be used around the world," he said. "If you have the technology, then it's not going to be just the U.S. doing something."

Barrasso is a member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and the Environment and Public Works Committee. He previously stood against Democrats on climate change by temporarily blocking the nomination of an Obama nominee to a key post in the Environmental Protection Agency.

Barrasso said he wanted to learn more about how the nominee would have implemented the Clean Air Act in light of an EPA finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and safety. The Senate confirmed the nominee last month.