Some quick hit pieces of news today:

Climate Plans by New York, Florida Prod U.S. on Global Accord

President George W. Bush is pressing allies in Europe for a global warming agreement based on voluntary targets for pollution reduction. State officials in the U.S. have already left him behind. Twenty-two U.S. states with about 145 million people are exploring mandatory carbon-dioxide caps and emission-credit markets similar to one in the European Union. The proposals are pressuring Congress to pass legislation that would supersede the state and regional programs with a single national plan.

U.S. Senator supports measure to establish federal oversight for new US carbon emissions trading market

U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) has announced her support for a measure sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) to establish federal oversight for new carbon emissions trading markets.

The measure also has the support of public utilities in California and across the country, as well as a number of consumer groups. The legislation, introduced on December 6, 2007, is designed to prevent future Enron-like fraud and manipulation in greenhouse gas emissions credit markets – billion-dollar markets that are expected to develop once Congress approves comprehensive climate change legislation that includes a cap-and-trade system for the trading of emissions credits.

Climate-Control Talks to Address Barriers to Green-Technology Profit

Diplomats from some of the world’s biggest economies will gather in Hawaii today for a new round of talks aimed at hashing out an international agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which sets caps on greenhouse-gas emissions but expires in 2012. The meeting isn’t expected to produce any major breakthrough. But it comes as the U.S. and other industrialized countries are pushing developing nations to scrap tariffs and other trade barriers they now impose on clean-energy technology — a push backed by Western companies such as General Electric Co., which see sales of those goods in the developing world as a hot business.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 at 6:42 pm and is filed under Carbon Credits, Government Regulation, Green Energy, Green Tech, Greenhouse Gases, Renewable Energy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.