Western states launch carbon scheme

[摘要] If the federal government doesn't get its act together on carbon trading, individual US states will come together to decide policy instead. That was the clear message when the governors of five western states, Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona and New Mexico signed an agreement on 26 February to create their own carbon cap-and-trade programme. The move parallels a similar scheme developed by northeastern states, together the two regions account for nearly a quarter of US carbon emissions. It also intends to go further than the northeastern scheme, the ten-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) which focuses on the electricity industry.