Global Warming: A Regional Market-Based Response

"A total of 10 eastern states, convened by New York Governor George E. Pataki, plan to spend two years developing a regional market-based system to limit carbon emissions, in an acknowledgment that global warming is a current problem." After much criticism of the Bush administration's environmental policies, "governors themselves are taking action, and though they are treading lightly around the political issues, environmental advocates say their quiet boldness speaks to the scope of the problem....Joining New York and Massachusetts were Republican governors from Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Vermont, and the Democratic governors of Delaware, Maine, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Only Maryland balked at joining the two-year effort to create a "cap-and-trade" program that would allow power plants that successfully reduce carbon emissions to profit by selling pollution credits to other companies." The plan is part of a trend in which states are increasing "taking global policy into their own hands." For example, Massachusetts, Maine, and Connecticut recently sued the federal EPA "for failing to regulate carbon dioxide, arguing that inaction will lead to increased hardship for states grappling with the effects of climate change."

Thanks to Connie Chung