Kyoto on the horizon
MASSACHUSETTS and eight other Northeastern states are close to taking a crucial step in reducing the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. The states are proposing to first cap the carbon dioxide emissions of their electric power plants and then reduce them by 10 percent by 2020. To emit CO{-2}, plants would need special carbon allowances, which could be bought and sold among power producers throughout the nine states. The proposed reduction is modest, but the principle of a carbon cap is so important to slowing climate change that the initiative is well worth supporting.
The Northeastern states have been led on this issue by New York's Republican governor, George Pataki, who is considering a presidential campaign. California, Oregon, and Washington on the West Coast are weighing a similar compact. A national carbon cap and trading system would be much more effective than these regional ones, because it would include the power producers of the Midwest and South, which are heavily dependent on coal, the fuel that emits the most CO{-2}{-.} But that would require the national leadership that neither President Bush nor Congress has been willing to provide, even though the United States, with 4 percent of the world's population, emits 25 percent of all greenhouse gases.
In the absence of direction from Washington, the New England states, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware can demonstrate just how a carbon cap can work to curb the warming that threatens to cause higher sea levels and unpredictable changes in weather, agriculture, and the distribution of animal-borne diseases. The Northeastern plan now being considered is expected to result in cost increases of just 1 to 2 percent for consumers but should send a signal to power producers to limit their reliance on energy sources, especially coal, that they would need the carbon allowances to burn.
States are permitted to adjust the plan to their own requirements, within certain ground rules. In each state, some carbon allowances would be sold by a public entity that could use the revenues to invest in renewable energy or conservation projects, such as more-efficient refrigerators in public housing. Other allowances would be granted free to all power producers using fossil fuels, allowing them to buy and sell them.
Since the rest of the country will be observing the Northeast's little Kyoto with great interest, it is important to make sure the sharing of carbon allowances between industry and the public entity is fair and that other details in the plan are worked out with care. But there is no question that capping CO{-2} emissions from power plants is the key step in steering electric production away from coal and toward energy sources that emit much less carbon or none at all.
CORRECTION: An editorial Monday misstated the dates of extended daylight saving time. Beginning in 2007, daylight saving will start on the second Sunday in March.
