Patrick to OK fees for power plants

Governor Deval Patrick is expected to announce today that Massachusetts will rejoin a group of other Northeast states that plan to combat global warming by charging power plants for emissions of so-called greenhouse gases. Patrick's predecessor, Mitt Romney, had dropped out of the program out of concern that the pollution fees would raise the state's already high electricity rates.

Patrick has scheduled a press conference with his environmental affairs secretary at the University of Massachusetts at Boston this afternoon, and energy company and environmental officials said they expect Patrick to use the event to make good on his campaign promise to rejoin the seven-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

The initiative, launched by states frustrated at the lack of federal action to slow global warming, calls for states to begin charging power plants for their carbon dioxide emissions by 2009. Money collected from the power generators could then be used for clean energy projects or conservation.

"It's a major step forward," said Seth Kaplan, senior attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation in Boston, which has campaigned extensively for Massachusetts to rejoin the effort to help ease global warming. . "This is a critical signal that Governor Patrick is going to keep his promise to seriously address the climate crisis threatening both the nation and the world."

Global temperatures have risen an average of 1 degree Fahrenheit over the last century -- last year's US temperatures were the highest ever recorded -- largely because of the release of carbon dioxide from burning coal, oil, natural gas, and other fuels worldwide, scientists say. In 2001, President George W. Bush withdrew the United States from negotiations over an international treaty aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions, prompting the Northeast states to start their own initiative.

The details of Patrick's plan have not been released, but environmentalists and legislative allies of the governor are hoping he will follow the lead of New York and Vermont, two states that already have committed to require power plants to buy a permit for each ton of carbon dioxide they release, using the funds for projects ranging from energy-efficient streetlights to nonpolluting forms of energy generation. States also have the option of giving away most of the permits, while selling only one quarter of them to power plant owners.

"I hope that the governor adopts the growing principle that polluters should pay, and the revenue generated by the auction of carbon permits should go 100 percent for public benefits," said state Representative J. James Marzilli Jr., an Arlington Democrat who has filed a bill that would bring Massachusetts back into the greenhouse gas initiative.

Many energy generators and large industrial users of electricity have opposed the greenhouse gas reduction plan, arguing that Massachusetts already has among the highest electricity rates in the country. Yesterday, however, they said they need to concentrate on minimizing the economic impact of the carbon dioxide charges, which analysts say could initially increase the average family's electricity bill by several dollars a year.

"We want to work with the governor to make sure that implementation of this rule doesn't harm our economy and make Massachusetts more expensive to do business in," said Robert Rio, vice president for government affairs at Associated Industries of Massachusetts.

Under greenhouse gas initiative rules, the release of carbon dioxide from Massachusetts power plants would be limited to 26.7 million tons in 2009. That would require no more than modest reductions in emissions, but power generators would need to have a permit for each ton they pump into the air.

The state would have the choice of making the generators buy the permits, expected to cost somewhere between $2 and $5 per ton, or to give them up to 75 percent of the needed permits, while requiring that they buy the remaining 25 percent. New York and Vermont officials have indicated they plan to sell all the permits, giving away none of them. Connecticut and New Jersey officials have given preliminary indications that they intend to do the same.

If Massachusetts followed those states, the carbon dioxide permit system could raise $50 million to $130 million a year for energy conservation, clean energy projects, or even direct electricity rate rebates to energy consumers. Advocates of the greenhouse gas initiative say the money could generate dramatic savings in energy costs over the long term.

By 2015, the carbon dioxide limit for Massachusetts and other states in the system would be reduced by 10 percent, forcing power plants to cut back on their overall carbon dioxide emissions.

Scott Allen can be reached at allen@globe.com. Beth Daley can be reached at bdaley@globe.com.