Energy stocks slip as Australia nears major emissions reduction bill

March 27 (Reuters) - Australia's energy stocks dropped on Monday as the lower house of the Parliament inched towards passing an emissions reduction plan that will put some curbs on new gas and coal investments and a limit on total emissions from the country's top emitters. Shares of Woodside Energy Ltd , the country's top independent gas producer, fell as much as 3.4% to mark their third straight day of losses. Woodside stock was the third-biggest loser in the ASX 200 benchmark index and poised for the worst day in nearly two weeks, if trend holds. Other heavyweights such as Santos Ltd , Beach Energy and Whitehaven Coal lost between 1.5% and 3%. Local energy sub-index lost up to 2.2% to mark its third consecutive day in red and the worst in a week, limiting losses in the ASX 200 benchmark, which was up 0.2% by 0358 GMT. Mining giants BHP Group and Rio Tinto Ltd , major exporters of iron ore and copper across the globe, lost 0.7% and 1%, respectively. Both the stocks weighed on the local mining index , which was down 0.3%. Australia's "safeguard mechanism" reform plan, set to take effect on July 1, seeks to limit emissions from the country's biggest polluters, and is key to achieving its target to cut carbon emissions by 43% from 2005 levels by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050. The plan "could mean less acceptances of new deals, which probably might be the biggest impact; so less project acceptances is going to mean these companies have less opportunity to make more money," said Josh Gilbert, market analyst at eToro. "Broadly, it is probably something really negative for these companies - how negative that we may not see play out until we get commentary from the companies and how it will affect them directly."

(Reporting by Sameer Manekar in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Riya Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)