As Eastern states auction carbon credits, Western states propose own cap-and-trade plan

Get ready for some bicoastal cap-and-trade action in the United States. Starting tomorrow, "for the first time in US history, a price tag will begin to be placed on millions of tons of carbon dioxide spewing from every major power plant from Maine to Maryland," the Christian Science Monitor reports.

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, nicknamed "Reggie," is being launched by 10 Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states, which will cap and then reduce CO₂ emissions from the power sector 10% by 2018 using a cap-and-trade system.

Meanwhile, seven Western states and four Canadian provinces (see map) have now proposed their own sweeping cap-and-trade plan for carbon reduction, says the Los Angeles Times. Known as the Western Climate Initiative, it aims to "slash regional greenhouse gas pollutants by about 15% below 2005 levels in the next 12 years" using "a complex trading system in which businesses can buy and barter their way out of trimming emissions."

The big difference between the two: Reggie focuses only on power plants, while the Western plan would include transportation, too, since that's the largest source of greenhouse gases in the West. Both regional initiatives reflect an impatience with the Bush Administration's foot-dragging on dealing with global warming, as well as the hope that a national cap-and-trade program may arise during the next administration.

However, notes the Times, "some experts are predicting that the Wall Street meltdown will weaken support for a national cap and trade system because investment banks, which stand to profit from such trading, are among its strongest supporters."

--Craig Pittman