Northeast US clean air pact gets renewed push

By Luis Andres Henao

BOSTON (Reuters) – A pact by northeastern U.S. states to
control greenhouse gases is getting a renewed push in
Massachusetts, whose governor rejected the historic plan three
months ago because it would raise energy costs.

Pamela Resor, a Democratic senator in the state Legislature
and chair of a joint committee on the environment, natural
resources and agriculture, said she was confident state
lawmakers would overrule Republican Gov. Mitt Romney.

In December, nine Northeast states were close to signing
the pact, which would bypass U.S. President George W. Bush’s
refusal to place limits on carbon dioxide emissions. It would
be the largest regional effort to limit power plant pollution.

But after two years of work, Romney pulled out, citing
concern that the initiative would raise energy costs for
businesses and homeowners. Rhode Island also withdrew.

Resor said she has written legislation to include
Massachusetts in the pact despite Romney’s refusal.

If the state Legislature passes her bill and then Romney
vetoes it, she would need the support of two-thirds of the
Democrat-controlled Legislature to override Romney’s veto.

“It’s very important for Massachusetts. It’s the first of
its kind,” Resor told Reuters in an interview.

Massachusetts produces most of New England’s greenhouse
gases and its participation in the pact, known as the Regional
Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), is vital to its success,
environmentalists and people involved in the negotiations

say.

Resor said the legislation was expected to be assigned by
Friday to a committee of state lawmakers who will study the
bill, and that there was a chance it could receive a public
hearing in the next few weeks.

The regional plan adopts a market-based approach that would
cap and trade carbon dioxide emissions. Power plants that emit
more of the heat-trapping gas under the set limits could then
buy credits from cleaner plants.

In 2001, Bush refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol, an
industrialized nation pact that pledges to limit greenhouse
gases, saying the energy costs would be too high and there
would be little regulation for developing nations. The White
House prefers voluntary methods to reduce heat-trapping gases.

Many scientists say that greenhouse gases are responsible
for a warming earth and, if not reduced, could lead to massive
storms like the one that struck the U.S. Gulf Coast last year.

The RGGI was scheduled to begin in 2009 and cut carbon
dioxide (CO2) emissions from power plants in member states 10
percent by 2019. But some businesses are weary of a move they
say would boost energy costs in a region that already faces the
highest energy bill in the country.

“If we took a poll in Massachusetts, every resident would
say they are against global warming,” says Bob Rio, vice
president of Environmental Policy for The Associated Industries
of Massachusetts, a trade group.

“But when you tell them that they are already paying 14
cents in electricity and the rate can go up another cent,
possibly taking their jobs away, what they’re going to say is:
I cannot solve the world’s problems over my back.”

Romney spokeswoman Corbie Kiernan said she was aware of the
bill but had not seen it.

Environmental groups and studies funded by RGGI argue that
the increase would be minimal — from $3 to $33 annually — and
homeowners would eventually end up saving money as power plants
become more efficient.

“Programs like RGGI that encourage us to be more fuel
efficient and reduce our dependency on imported fossil fuels
are just good for us economically and socially, global warming
aside,” said Seth Kaplan, senior attorney for the Conservation
Law Foundation, an advocacy group.