House Speaker Nancy Pelosi used a mixture of “whipping, cajoling, begging and browbeating” to get undecided Democrats to support a cap-and-trade energy bill on Friday, according to Politico. But she didn’t need to apply pressure to win the support of U.S. Rep. James R. Langevin.

Back in his district for Congress’ Fourth of July week recess, the Rhode Island Democrat spent Tuesday in Providence’s Olneyville neighborhood, concluding the day by meeting with about 50 people at the Cathedral of Life Christian Assembly, on Westminster Street. Before and during the community meeting, Langevin made it clear that he was fully behind the energy bill, which the House passed by a vote of 219 to 212 and sent to the Senate.

While 44 Democrats voted against it, Langevin and Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy supported the bill, which The New York Times described as “the most ambitious energy and climate-change legislation ever introduced in Congress.” The bill creates a cap-and-trade system that sets a limit on overall emissions of heat-trapping gases while allowing utilities, manufacturers and other emitters to trade pollution permits, or allowances, among themselves. It’s called the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act, but not everyone thinks it’s aces.

“People have strong feelings on either side of that bill,” Langevin said. He noted that as he made stops earlier in the day, some people had blasted it as a “cap and tax” bill.

Langevin said he strongly supports the bill for three main reasons. “First of all, the bill is designed to free us from our dependence on foreign oil and protect consumers in the long run from rapid and high energy price increases,” he said. “We all remember what it was like just recently when we had $4 a gallon for gas and how high home heating oil was.” While prices have fallen, he said, “I’m concerned that is a temporary decrease and it won’t be too far in the future that, if we don’t act, we would once again be facing high energy prices.”

The country needs to produce more of its own energy, and while that’s going to mean more drilling for oil in the short run, he called for also “developing alternative energy sources such as ethanol and biofuels, and more progressive things like wind power and solar energy.”

Second, Langevin said, “I am very concerned about global warming and the damage that’s being done to our environment because of greenhouse gases and the burning of fossil fuels. We have to take quick action to protect the environment for the future.”

Finally, he said, “It’s vitally important to our economy to pass that bill so that we can create green energy jobs in the 21st century. This bill will be a job creator in the building of alternative energy sources, whether it’s wind or solar power or the biofuels. These will create good-paying jobs now and in the future.”

During a question-and-answer session, Langevin criticized the “Cheney-Bush energy policy,” saying it produced higher oil prices. “They were two oil men in the White House, and their idea of bringing a national energy policy was doing nothing to develop alternatives other than lip service with no support behind it and continuing to be dependent on oil, whether domestic or particularly foreign oil. They are gone. Good riddance. Thank God. And hopefully now America is heading in a new direction.”

But a New York Times editorial said all of the “hearings, the negotiating, the arm-twisting” in the House “will add up to zero if the Senate cannot be persuaded to do the same, and preferably better. The country would be left with an outdated energy policy and the planet would be stuck with steadily rising emissions.”

efitzpat@projo.com