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New Mexico Panel Approves Carbon Cap-And-Trade Rule (Update1)
2010-11-03 14:22:05.425 GMT
(Adds opposition from incoming New Mexico governor in first
paragraph.)
By Simon Lomax
Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- A New Mexico environmental panel
adopted a cap-and-trade plan to cut greenhouse gases, a measure
opposed by the state's incoming Republican governor.
The state Environmental Improvement Board approved on a 4-3
vote the program for restricting carbon-dioxide emissions that
scientists link to climate change, the New Mexico Environment
Department said yesterday in a statement on its website.
The measure wouldn't go into effect unless other U.S.
states or Canadian provinces move ahead with similar systems for
limiting greenhouse gases, the department said. The New Mexico
program would regulate about 63 "large industrial sources,"
such as power plants, the department said.
Governor-elect Susana Martinez opposes the cap-and-trade
plan, her spokesman, Ted Kwong, said in e-mail before
yesterday's balloting. Martinez defeated Democratic Lieutenant
Governor Diane Denish 54 percent to 46 percent, according to the
Associated Press.
Current Governor Bill Richardson, a Democrat, said the U.S.
government should "build on New Mexico's program" and similar
greenhouse gas limits planned in other U.S. states, such as
California, "to implement a national cap-and-trade system."
Federal Moves
President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress failed to
pass legislation this year that would create a federal cap-and-
trade program, in which companies buy and sell a declining
number of carbon dioxide permits.
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, who won
control of the body yesterday, have said they would block cap-
and-trade legislation if they took a majority of seats in the
midterm elections. They describe the measure as a "national
energy tax."
PNM Resources Inc., owner of the largest utility company in
New Mexico, also opposes state-level greenhouse gas limits.
A national greenhouse-gas law "is the only way to
meaningfully reduce emissions, minimize costs to customers and
to our economy, and not disadvantage any particular state," Pat
Vincent-Collawn, PNM's chief executive officer, said in a
statement on the company's website.
The utility company is "disappointed" by the environment
board's vote and will "evaluate all options, including legal."
California Ballot
New Mexico is a member of the Western Climate Initiative, a
coalition of Canadian provinces and U.S. states, including
California, that seek to form a joint carbon trading system to
cut emissions 15 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.
California voters rejected a ballot measure yesterday
backed by oil refiners that would have suspended a global-
warming law signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Proposition 23 was losing 39 percent to 61 percent, with 93
percent of the precincts counted, according to AP.
By 2015, California's cap-and-trade program would cover
nearly 400 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from power
plants, factories, refineries and the tailpipes of cars and
trucks, the state Air Resources Board said in a report last
week.
By comparison, New Mexico's annual greenhouse gas emissions
are roughly equal to 24 million tons of carbon dioxide, the
environment department said.
New Mexico won't proceed with the cap-and-trade program
unless states or provinces with combined emissions of at least
100 million tons of carbon dioxide agree to participate in the
proposed carbon trading bloc, the environment department said.
For Related News and Information:
Top environment stories: GREEN <GO>
Stories about U.S. and climate: TNI US CLIMATE <GO>
Global emissions data: EMIS <GO>
Northeast U.S. trading: RGGI <GO>
--Editors: Charlotte Porter, Dan Stets
To contact the reporter on this story:
Simon Lomax in Washington at +1-202-654-4305 or
slomax@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Dan Stets at +1-212-617-4403 or dstets@bloomberg.net.
