By John Fleck
Copyright © 2008 Albuquerque Journal
Journal Staff Writer
SANTA FE--Many New Mexico companies, especially power producers and the oil and gas industry, would have to begin reducing greenhouse gas emissions or pay a price
beginning in 2012 under a plan being developed by seven Western states and four Canadian provinces.
But motor vehicles, which account for a big share of the region's emissions linked to global warming, would get a pass until 2015.
The Western Climate Initiative would set caps on emissions from power plants and other industries in the seven states and four provinces involved.
Companies would be allowed to exceed their caps only by buying credits from others that have reduced their emissions more than required. The program, called "cap and trade," is an attempt to enlist market forces to make greenhouse gas reductions as economical as possible.
A draft of the proposal, more than a year in the making, was unveiled in a series of meetings around the West over the last two weeks, including a gathering in Santa Fe on Friday.
The goal is a reduction in regional greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 to levels 15 percent below their 2005 levels.
The initiative has drawn cautious support from those interested in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
"The Western Climate Initiative proposal is a big step forward for an effective climate change solution," said Lauren Ketcham of Environment New Mexico.
The biggest complaint from industry is that the initiative is regional rather than national in scope, creating the potential for inequities and uncertainties in a national economy.
"We support and are advocates for a national approach," said Bruce Gantner of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association.
Many details remain to be worked out as the plan is developed over the next several years, with much still uncertain about what the final greenhouse emissions
reduction approach will look like.
Regional reservation
Climate scientists say excess greenhouse gases from human activities, primarily carbon dioxide from car tailpipes and factory smokestacks, are warming Earth's climate and changing patterns of floods and droughts. In New Mexico, the scientists say, we could see substantially deeper and longer droughts in the 21st century as a result.
The Western Climate Initiative is one of a number of state-level initiatives being developed in response to a lack of federal action.
Derek Walker of the Environmental Defense Fund said the Initiative and a similar effort among states in the Northeast have a "a huge effect politically" by demonstrating to Congress that action on climate change has political support.
In New Mexico, coal-fired power plants are one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, making electricity provider PNM, operator of one of the major plants, a big player in the discussion.
PNM is one of a number of companies that have banded together with environmental groups to push for a national greenhouse gas reduction system. But Jeff Burks, who works
on greenhouse initiatives for the companies, said the regional approach being pursued by WCI is flawed.
The problem, he said, is the difficulty in keeping track of electricity generated inside the WCI states that is consumed inside the states. Accounting for such flows of electricity, keeping track of who is responsible for which greenhouse gas emissions, will be a difficult problem, Burks said in an interview.
Another uncertainty is how the greenhouse pollution credits will be distributed--whether they will be given to industries for free, or sold at auction. Industry tends to support free distribution, while environmentalists favor an auction.
Concern about autos
The decision to include only industry and leave the transportation sector for later also has drawn criticism.
Angus Duncan, chairman of the Oregon Global Warming Commission, said he understands the Initiative's desire to "chew up one mouthful and swallow it before it takes the next bite." But Duncan said leaving emissions from cars and trucks for later
will make it harder to achieve greenhouse emissions goals once the transportation sector is brought into the program.
Even among those who favor greenhouse gas reductions, a cap-and-trade proposal that does not have global reach has its detractors.
One risk, according to University of Colorado political scientist Roger Pielke Jr., is that a cap-and-trade system here in the United States, either regionally or nationally, could reduce our consumption enough to cause a corresponding global drop in
the price of fossil fuels.
In response, countries like China might then increase their consumption, Pielke said, resulting in no net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
The next step for the Western Climate Initiative is a final overall plan, which is due in September. That plan will provide the general framework for the cap-and-trade system, and then it will be up to individual states to implement detailed state- and
province-level regulations. The New Mexico state Legislature is expected to take up the issue in its 2009 session.
