Maryland Fights Global Warming

Maryland may be south of the Mason-Dixon line but it is firmly aligning with the northeast on this question:

Maryland joined a multistate effort to reduce pollution contributing to global warming Friday and will begin studies to find more ways to combat climate change and limit the threat rising sea levels pose to the state's 3,100 miles of coastline.

Gov. Martin O'Malley, who signed on to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and issued an executive order creating the Maryland Commission on Climate Change Friday at Sandy Point Park on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, said that in the absence of federal action to combat global warming, states must step up their efforts.

When fully phased in, RGGI will force a 10 percent reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from power plants in 10 Northeastern states . . .

The RGGI agreement creates the first "cap and trade" system in the United States to control emissions of carbon dioxide, the primary global warming gas. Starting in 2009, each state will be allocated a certain amount of carbon dioxide its power plants are allowed to emit (for Maryland, it's 37,503,983 million short tons a year). The states would then auction off the credits to electricity producers, who would be forced to stay below the caps or buy unused credits from cleaner power plants.

Beginning in 2015, the states' caps will be reduced by 2.5 percent a year for four years.

An economic analysis conducted by RGGI member states estimated that the cap and trade program could increase retail consumers electric bills by 0.3 percent to 3.2 percent in 2015, a difference of between $3 and $16 a year.

George S. Aburn Jr., air director for the state Department of the Environment, said the program could generate as much as $100 million a year for energy efficiency programs, such as installing "smart meters" in homes to help customers manage their power use or establishing incentive programs for people to improve the energy efficiency of their homes.

Carbon dioxide down but electric bills up. I wonder if the analysis takes into account that rising prices will encourage consumers to use less energy. Of course, it would also help if older power plants are replaced by cleaner, more efficient ones.