Western Climate Initiative unveils plan for capping emissions

Utah and other members of the Western Climate Initiative on Tuesday announced support of an emissions-trading plan to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in the West.

After 18 months of discussions and public meetings, the coalition released what it calls its design recommendations for a cap-and-trade system. The coalition, which was established last year, includes seven Western states and four Canadian provinces.

"We're sending a strong message to our federal governments that states and provinces are moving forward in the absence of federal action, and we're setting the stage for national programs that are just as aggressive," California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement.

But some environmental groups said the recommendations don't go far enough and put too much control in states' hands. Business groups contended that Utah, with most of its energy coming from coal-fired power plants, would shoulder too much of the burden to reduce emissions in the region and then pass the cost on to consumers. Some Utah lawmakers also worried about the recommendations' potential impact on Utah businesses.

House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, called reducing emissions a "laudable" goal. "But we need to make sure we don't just wholesale forget about the economic impacts and the energy impacts of the policies we advance," he said. "Doing it at the stake of driving away jobs and driving down the economy is something we need to be very mindful of."

Senate President Jon Valentine, R-Orem, said he feared a carbon-trading program might put the state's businesses at a disadvantage in a global economy.

"We want to make certain we do not unnecessarily harm Utah businesses," Valentine said Tuesday. "You can end up with such an aggressive approach that it hurts businesses in Utah and makes us not competitive."

Dianne Nielson, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s energy adviser, said the coalition's recommendations mark the start of discussions at the state level "that will continue with our Legislature and stakeholders to ensure the design works for Utah."

Nielson said the next step will be to form a task force to figure out what type of legislation will be required to implement the coalition's recommendations. "We're going to take a year, work with stakeholders, with legislative leaders, and figure out the best way to accomplish this and then deal with this in the 2010 legislative session," she said.

Only states' legislatures and regulatory agencies, not the coalition, have the power to enact or enforce the recommended emissions changes.

The coalition has focused on a "market-based" cap-and-trade system intended to dramatically cut climate-changing emissions. The Northeast and Midwest also have a similar Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.