As Bush stands firm, states flirt with Europe on carbon controls

[Khephra]

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- Two sets of Americans have come here to talk global warming: the United States, opposed to controls on carbon emissions, and a bloc of united states, from Maine to Delaware, that plan to impose them.

"It's not an in-your-face thing," Kenneth Colburn, leading the nine-state effort, said of the seeming defiance of the Bush administration. "They're doing what they think needs to be done."

That may even include linking up with the Europeans in a backdoor trading scheme on emissions _ although a key Republican says that would meet a "lot of skepticism" in Congress.

The American by-play is taking place at the annual U.N. conference on climate change, where delegates from scores of nations are filling in last-minute details on the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 pact that takes effect Feb. 16 requiring 30 industrial nations to reduce, by 2012, emissions of "greenhouse gases" that scientists blame for global warming.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj--climate-disunited1216dec16,0,2540029.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire

[DireStrike]

1. In NYS, Pataki is giving lip service

No movement yet. And with our notoriously inefficient state gov't, it may be a while. Some pressure is being placed from both sides.