Pres candidate Bill Richardson and four other governors to work together to reduce greenhouse gases

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5 Governors Agree to Work on Climate

02.26.07, 5:22 PM ET

Fed up with federal inaction and convinced of the dangers from global warming, five governors from Western states agreed Monday to work together to reduce greenhouse gases.

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New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat seeking his party's presidential nomination, said the five-state agreement should spur other states ahead. "You're going to see a domino effect with more and more states taking action," Richardson said.

On everyone's lips was Sunday night's Oscar for former Vice President Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" - a documentary that illustrated the changes to the nation's climate and the dangers ahead.

Such a market pact is close to becoming reality among eight Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states, which plan to impose caps on power plant emissions and encourage trading of allowances among utilities. More than two dozen states have drawn up plans to combat warming in various forms, and many governors have signed onto efforts to use 25 percent renewable energy sources by 2025.

The latest agreement - called the Western Regional Climate Action Initiative - builds on earlier efforts.

New Mexico and Arizona last year agreed to measure and report greenhouse gas emissions. A similar joint effort on climate change was agreed upon in 2003 by California, Oregon and Washington.


http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/02/26/ap3464080.html


related:


Western states united to bypass Bush on climate
http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN2630275420070226


Senate approves renewable energy bill

Associated Press
February 22, 2007

SANTA FE (AP) - A proposal to encourage the production of more electricity from renewable energy sources cleared the Senate on Thursday.

The measure would require that renewable energy sources _ such as wind, solar and biomass _ account for at least 15 percent of an electric utility's power supply by 2015 and 20 percent by 2020.

Gov. Bill Richardson has advocated boosting the renewable energy requirement as a way to help reduce the nation's dependence on imported oil and to fight global warming by lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

The measure also would impose a renewable energy requirement on rural electric distribution cooperatives. They must get 5 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2015, increasing to 10 percent by 2020.

Sen. Jeff Bingaman, in a speech to a joint session of the Legislature, said Congess needed to establish a national renewable energy standard for utilities. He applauded legislators and Gov. Bill Richardson for moving forward with energy bills to address global warming.

"Through the good work you are doing here in New Mexico you are ratcheting up the pressure on those of us in Washington to take serious action," said Bingaman, D-N.M.

http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/57409.html

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1. a presidential candidate walking the walk on environmental standards

You know, on one point, Larry, on energy...

KING: You have 30 seconds.

RICHARDSON: Exxon Mobil announced $37 billion in profit. It's 65 percent dependence on imported oil. The president made that good phrase "addicted to oil." But few solutions, hardly any, you need an Apollo-like private-public partnership, renewable energy, fuel efficient vehicle, conservation, massive new research funds into especially solar wind and biomass. That's the only way out of this.

http://www.vote-smart.org/speech_detail.php?speech_id=149962&keyword=apollo&phrase=&contain=