WASHINGTON — A Republican lawmaker says U.S. participation in an international agreement on climate change would result in soaring energy prices and damage America's economic competitiveness.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee is among a group of GOP congressional critics of Democratic climate legislation who plan to travel to the climate conference in Copenhagen next week to voice opposition to the blueprint offered by President Barack Obama.

"If President Obama has his way, the Copenhagen conference will produce mandatory emissions limits that would destroy millions of American jobs and damage our economic competitiveness for decades to come," Blackburn said the in GOP's radio and Internet address Saturday.

Blackburn reaffirmed the position of Republican leaders in Congress that mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions would result in dramatically higher energy costs as the industry would be forced to shift away from fossil fuels or pay for carbon-capture technologies.

Supporters of such caps argue legislation can be crafted to mitigate many of the additional costs to consumers through increases in energy efficiency and other measures such as allowing polluters to purchase emission allowances if that's cheaper than making actual reductions from their smokestacks.