ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - A White House spokesman said on Friday that new investments in green energy technology are more important for easing the effects of climate change than whether or not the controversial Keystone pipeline gets built.

Asked by reporters whether the construction of the pipeline was less important to slowing climate change than supporting projects such as the Argonne National Laboratory that President Barack Obama is visiting on Friday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said it was.

"There's no question about that," he said. Measures such as increasing automotive fuel economy standards would have the clearest impact, he said.

(Reporting By Roberta Rampton; Editing by Eric Beech)