UPDATE 2-US EPA finds Senate climate bill affordable

* To cost households less than 50 cts/day on average -EPA

* Results not enough to broaden support in Senate-analyst

* Some big businesses skeptical, want EIA analysis
(Adds details, analyst quote, bylines)

By Timothy Gardner and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON, June 15 (Reuters) - U.S. environmental
regulators said on Tuesday the climate and energy bill in the
Senate would only add slightly to average household costs, but
the finding was not expected to boost chances for the
legislation that would cap greenhouse gas emissions.

The climate bill unveiled last month by Senators John
Kerry, a Democrat, and Joseph Lieberman, an independent, would
cost households an average of $79 to $146 per year through
2050, the Environmental Protection Agency said in an economic
analysis.

Through 2020 consumer energy costs would go down before
picking up in following decades, the EPA said in the analysis
that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promised Republicans
last year the bill would have to face.

The EPA's cost estimate of the Kerry-Lieberman bill was
similar to the price tag it put last year on an analysis of the
climate bill narrowly passed by the House of Representatives,
which gained no traction in the Senate.

One analyst said the lack of a big change from last year's
estimate limited how much the new analysis will boost support
for the long-delayed Senate bill.

"The bottom line is the EPA analysis was not much different
than last year's and the moderate result won't do much to
change the calculus in the Senate," said Divya Reddy, an
analyst at the Eurasia Group in Washington. "Many lawmakers
from coal and manufacturing states still have reservations."

That could leave the bill's chances of passing largely up
to President Barack Obama, who has made passing a broad energy
bill to boost alternative energy and cut emissions one of his
top priorities. In a speech to the nation later on Tuesday,
Obama is expected to offer ambitious plans to cut U.S.
dependence on fossil fuels in the wake of the BP Plc (BP.L: Quote) oil
spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The EPA analysis also showed that prices for carbon permits
in the cap and trade market outlined in Kerry-Lieberman should
hit $16 to $17 per tonne in 2013 and $23 to $24 per tonne in
2020. Those prices were well within range of the bill's initial
floor and ceiling prices.

DID NOT FACTOR IN BENEFITS

For his part, Kerry centered on the part of the analysis
that showed costs would fall at first.

"Well-designed climate change and energy legislation is
good for American consumers," Kerry told reporters.

He also added the EPA analysis does not factor in other
benefits to the U.S. economy that would be achieved from
getting global warming under control. Those include, he said,
avoiding lower crop yields, extreme weather-related deaths and
more destructive storms.

Environmentalists were pleased with the analysis.

"The EPA's analysis removes the last excuse senators may
have for not passing strong climate and energy legislation this
session," Kevin Knobloch, the president of the Union of
Concerned Scientists, said in a release.

But big industry has been skeptical of EPA analyses on
previous climate bills. The American Petroleum Institute has
said it would not make a decision on whether to support the
bill until the Energy Information Administration does its own
analysis. Some see the independent branch of the Department of
Energy as freer of influence from the Obama administration.

Majority Leader Reid wants a broad energy bill to move to
the Senate floor in coming weeks, though time is running short
ahead of midterm elections in the fall and ideas for
legislation are still being kicked around.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner and Richard Cowan; Editing by
David Gregorio and Sofina Mirza-Reid)