States in US CO2 Plan May Aim at Industrial Plants
Posted on: Tuesday, 28 March 2006, 19:30 CST
NEW YORK -- U.S. states breaking with the Bush administration in forming a regional plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions at power plants could next aim for cutting emissions at industrial plants, officials from the states said.
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a group of seven states in the U.S. Northeast, plans to cap emissions of carbon dioxide at power plants at 1990 levels of about 120 million tons through 2014 and then reduce it 10 percent below that level in 2018.
Carbon dioxide is the main heat-trapping gas that most scientists blame for global warming.
Plants that produce power for industries, such as oil refining, but only sell 10 percent or less of their power to the electricity grid, are exempt from the plan, according to the model rule of the plan released last week.
"We may in the next phase expand to industrial sources and if we do, those 'behind the meter' sources will be targets of that expansion," Franz Litz, the RGGI representative from New York state, said at a meeting of the group in New York City on Tuesday.
The RGGI refers to such plants as "behind the meter" because they contribute little to the public power grid.
RGGI is being planned in a way that would allow it to be "easily" broadened into a national plan, said Litz.
But it has many obstacles at other states, such as in the Midwest where there are many power plants, and at the federal level.
President George W. Bush opposes regulations that forcibly limit greenhouse gases, preferring voluntary means instead.
The RGGI is taking public comments on its model rule until May 22, after which it will be revised. The other states in the plan are New Jersey, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont and Delaware.
The group aims to put out a final draft of the plan in early July, which will then be sent to the individual states to approve it.
Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican, pulled the state of the plan late last year claiming that it would add too much to electricity bills. State lawmakers are trying to overrule the governor's decision.
Source: REUTERS
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