Western states united to bypass Bush on climate

By Timothy Gardner

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Five Western U.S. states have formed the latest regional pact to bypass the Bush administration to cut emissions linked to global warming through market mechanisms.

The Western Regional Climate Action Initiative requires Oregon, California, Washington, New Mexico and Arizona to develop a regional target in six months for reducing greenhouse emissions according to statements from the states' governors.

During the next 18 months, the states will devise a market-based plan, such as a load-based cap-and-trade program, to reach the target. They also have agreed to participate in a multi-state registry to track and manage greenhouse gas emissions in their region.

More politicians and corporations have been pressuring the federal government to join most of the world's other developed countries in regulating the gases most scientists blame for global warming.

Several eastern U.S. states have signed a similar agreement called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Utility TXU Corp. on Monday scrapped plans to build eight of 11 new coal-fired power units in Texas as part of a buyout by private equity firms.

Bicoastal regional greenhouse pacts could force U.S. smokestack and transportation businesses to lobby more intensely for a national greenhouse plan, rather than face patchwork local regulations, said Jeremiah Baumann, an advocate with the Oregon State Public Interest Research Group.

"With the Western states you've got a huge part of the U.S. economy ... beginning to regulate greenhouse gases, that should send a message to business that national regulations are coming" Baumann, said.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently passed the country's toughest greenhouse emissions laws which aim to reduce state output of the gases by 25 percent by 2020.