Governors unite to cut emissions

US state governors say they are fed up with the Bush administration's foot-dragging on climate change and will go ahead -- and around -- the White House to reduce greenhouse gases. On Apr. 18, 18 states signed a declaration committing themselves to "the effort to stop global warming" during a series of discussions and a ceremony at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. "In the absence of federal leadership the states have stepped up," said Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who spoke at the ceremony with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine. The US is the world's number one greenhouse gas polluter, and the 18 states emit as much greenhouse gas as the biggest nations in Europe combined. Any reduction would be significant for the health of the planet, said Daniel Esty, director of the Yale Centre for Environmental Law and Policy. Many of the states, like New Jersey and Massachusetts, have acted on their own, without federal encouragement or support, and put in place plans to significantly reduce greenhouse gases by 2020, through tougher controls on power plants, financial incentives to encourage more green power, grants and discounts for businesses and consumers who use alternative energy and changes in land use. The 18 states made their declaration while Pres. Bush was attending climate change talks in Paris, where his proposal that the US would decrease greenhouse gases slightly by 2025 was roundly criticised as too little, and much too late. The states feel the same way. "We're going forward because we've been waiting for seven years for federal leadership," Sebelius said. Kansas gets 76 percent of its power from coal-burning power plants, Sebelius said. "We have the 10th largest carbon footprint in the nation," Sebelius said. The state is also the windiest in the US and so her plan is for the state to shift from coal to wind, she said. States also have formed regional partnerships to track air pollutants and reduce them. The Western Climate Initiative calls for a 15-percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2020. In the northeast, 10 states will begin a "cap and trade" program this August, under which they will enforce tough new limits on air pollution from energy companies. Thirty-six states have or are drafting plans to reduce greenhouse gases. For decades, California has led the nation in requiring stricter pollution controls on cars. Today, California has a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from all sources by 80 percent by 2050. The Bush White House has barely invested any funds to reduce climate change, Sebelius said. In seven years, it has spent $1.5 billion on climate change. "To put this in perspective, the American public spent $5 billion on Halloween," a children's holiday, she said. The US has also refused to ratify the Kyoto protocol, an environmental pact that calls for reductions in greenhouse emissions worldwide. Greenhouse gases are byproducts of car exhaust and power plant pollutants, like carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide, and they have accumulated in Earth's atmosphere at extremely high levels. They are believed to be causing massive climate shifts worldwide that threaten people, animals and plants. Many states, like California, are already seeing negative consequences of climate change, like lower levels of fresh water, flooding, extreme forest fires and very high tides along some coasts, as has happened in New Jersey. "To really implement climate change actions, you have to go local where people use transportation and turn on electric appliances," Corzine said. Petr Kolor, the Czech ambassador to the US, was present at the declaration as an observer. "It's surprising that you need local governments to push the federal government to do something," he told IPS. "Progress on climate change in the European Union is much more advanced." The states' declaration came just days after the federal Environmental Protection Agency told California and 17 other states that they would not be allowed to require car makers to sell cars that emit less pollution. Mary Nichols, chair of the California Air Resources Board, told IPS that the state will not give up. "We will sue EPA and we are working with the presidential candidates," Nichols told IPS. "After January 2009, we will get our waiver," she added. The 18 states said in their declaration that they are also pinning their hopes on the new US president. All three of the presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama, all have expressed strong support for vigorous federal action on climate change, Sebelius said. "We can present our plans to the new president and say, 'this is what works'," Sebelius said. But Michael Northrop, programme director of Sustainable Development for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, said that lobbyists of private energy companies will pose formidable foes to any aggressive national plan to reduce greenhouse gases. "They will want to maintain the status quo. This will be a gigantic battle," Northrop told IPS. The governors rebuffed questions about the financial costs associated with reducing greenhouse emissions, like higher electric bills for consumers. "The reality is if we don't correct climate change, the challenges to our economy that come with global warming will cost us greatly," Corzine said. "It's an economic opportunity, not a burden," he said. The states that signed the declaration are: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Virginia and Washington.