http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/26/AR2007022600733.html
Five western states to bypass Bush on climate
By Timothy Gardner
Reuters
Monday, February 26, 2007; 2:28 PM
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Five Western U.S. states have formed the latest
regional pact that bypasses the Bush administration to cut emissions
linked to global warming through market mechanisms, according to
Oregon's governor.
Oregon, California, Washington, New Mexico and Arizona have agreed to
develop a regional target for reducing greenhouse emissions in six
months, according a statement from Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski.
During the next 18 months, the governors will devise a market-based
program, such as a load-based cap and trade program to reach the
target. The five states also have agreed to participate in a multi-
state registry to track and manage greenhouse gas emissions in their
region.
The Western Regional Climate Action Initiative comes on the heels of
an agreement in the East called the Regional Greenhouse Gas
Initiative.
"With the Western states you've got a huge part of the U.S. economy
that are beginning to regulate greenhouse gases," said Jeremiah
Baumann, an advocate with the Oregon State Public Interest Research
Group.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently passed the country's
toughest greenhouse emissions laws which aim to reduce the state's
economy-wide output of the gases by 25 percent by 2020.
Monday's agreement "sets the stage for a regional cap and trade
program, which will provide a powerful framework for developing a
national cap and trade program," Schwarzenegger said in a statement on
Monday. "This agreement shows the power of states to lead our nation
addressing climate change."
The other states in the Western pact have also passed greenhouse gas
reduction initiatives of their own. The regional pact would allow the
states to use market mechanisms more efficiently to reduce output of
the gases, said Baumann.
The United States initiated cap and trade programs on pollutants such
as acid rain components in the early 1990s.
In such markets for greenhouse gases, companies can offset their
emissions by investing in clean projects like solar and wind power, or
earn credits that they can sell for cutting their emissions at their
factories.
In 2005, the European Union formed a cap and trade program to meet its
countries' obligations under the Kyoto Protocol.
Unlike developed countries that ratified Kyoto, the United States does
not regulate carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases. President
George W. Bush withdrew from the international pact early in his first
term, saying it would hurt the economy and unfairly leave rapidly
developing countries without emissions limits in its first phase.
Greenhouse pacts on both coasts could send a message to smokestack and
transportation businesses and encourage them to lobby for a national
greenhouse plan, rather than face patchwork local regulations, Baumann
said.
Like California's recent laws, the Western pact also seeks to regulate
imports of electricity from dirty coal-burning power plants from
surrounding states outside of the agreement.
The seven states in the Eastern regional pact, which include New York
and Massachusetts, aim to cut carbon dioxide emissions at power plants
by 10 percent by 2019.