States in US CO2 plan may aim at industrial plants

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.

Reuters