President Barack Obama, fresh from his first legislative victory on climate policy, expressed confidence that new greenhouse gas emission limits would become law with help from the US Senate.
Mr Obama also announced new measures on efficiency standards for lighting used in homes and businesses to take effect in 2012.
The US House of Representatives passed a climate change Bill on Friday that would require large companies, including utilities and manufacturers, to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases associated with global warming by 17 per cent by 2020 and 83 per cent by 2050, from 2005 levels.
The Democratic President and many environmentalists declared the passage a historic step forward for US energy policy, while Republicans and other opponents called it a massive tax that would not succeed in fighting climate change. The Bill gives Mr Obama a stronger case to assert US leadership on global warming at a meeting of the world's major emitters next week on the sidelines of the G8 summit in Italy.
But the President's victory may be short-lived. The US Senate must now shape its version of the same Bill, and the chances of passage there are murky.
Mr Obama and his top environmental aide, Carol Browner, expressed confidence that success would come in the Senate as well. "In the months to come, the Senate will take up its version of the energy Bill, and I am confident that it too will choose to move this country forward," Mr Obama told reporters.
Ms Browner declined to speculate on the timing of a Senate vote but referred to statements by Majority Leader Harry Reid that work would be done on the Bill this autumn.
"I am confident that ... comprehensive energy legislation will pass through the Senate," she said.
UN talks on a new global pact to fight climate change take place in December in Copenhagen, and analysts say having a US law passed by then would boost chances of reaching an international agreement.
Mr Obama has said he wants the US to lead the world in fighting climate change.
The new efficiency standards announced by the President apply to fluorescent and incandescent lamps, which represent 37 and 7 per cent of lighting energy use, respectively, the White House said. They would save up to 594 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions by 2042, the White House said.