CHEYENNE - Sen. John Barrasso said he opposes any "cap and trade" system of regulating greenhouse gases by enabling companies to buy and sell the right to emit carbon dioxide.

Barrasso supported a successful amendment earlier this month to remove cap-and-trade legislation from President Obama's federal budget proposal.

Stopping through Cheyenne last week, Barrasso said he thinks cap and trade would penalize American consumers. He said it makes no sense to do that, especially while nations such as China and India continue to pour greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Barrasso said the Obama proposal would have diverted money to health care and not applied much to new clean energy technologies.

"Washington needs to make the investment in technology research," Barrasso said. "We need to get the technology to make use of coal as clean as we can without raising costs on consumers."

States such as Kansas, Nevada and Michigan have put moratoriums on or canceled new coal-fired power plants because of market uncertainty. Meanwhile, investment banks Morgan Stanley, Citi, and J.P. Morgan Chase have said future lending for coal-fired power plants would be contingent on utilities showing economic viability under future carbon costs.

Under those circumstances, some have said more coal-fired power generation can't be built until a price is put on carbon.

"That's one point of view," said Barrasso, a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the Energy Subcommittee.

But right now countries such as India and China appear unwilling to go along with carbon reductions, Barrasso said. He said that makes investing in cleaner coal technologies a better option.

Barrasso last year proposed directing $50 billion in revenue from emission allowances to the demonstration and deployment of carbon capture technologies.