By Timothy Gardner
WASHINGTON, Sept 18 (Reuters) - A California registry,
which companies use to attempt to secure credit for voluntarily
cutting greenhouse gas emissions ahead of laws limiting them,
is seeking to expand in the United States, a source at the
group said on Monday.
"We're in discussions with about 30 states in creating a
multi-state greenhouse gas emissions reduction registry," the
source told Reuters in a telephone interview. "We're only in
discussion stages, but agreements are probably a year away."
The California Climate Action Registry was set up by the
state in 2001 at the urging of companies that believed gases
linked to global warming would at some point be regulated
either on a state or federal level.
The United States, the world's biggest polluter, pulled out
of the 160-nation Kyoto Protocol in 2001 on the grounds that
the mandatory reductions in greenhouse gases would hurt the
economy and wrongly excluded developing nations.
In the absence of federal laws, regulations are slowly
taking shape in the states.
California last month made the bold move by becoming the
first state to mandate a cut in greenhouse gas emissions, equal
to 25 percent by 2020.
Arizona's governor signed an executive order this month to
cut emissions, while Northeastern states are set to form the
first carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions market on power plants.
Traders are salivating at the potential of the greenhouse
gas market in the United States.
Continued...
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