Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon and the other members of the Western Climate Initiative will outline a  strategy this week for reducing greenhouse gases for much of the western U.S. and Canada. Rob Manning reports.

The Western Climate Initiative’s ten participating states and provinces indicated a year ago that they wanted a market-based way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

In other words, a carbon cap and trade system.

In general, the system would begin by setting caps for carbon emissions. Companies that exceeded the cap would either need to reduce emissions or buy credits from less-polluting participants.

An early draft of cap-and-trade recommendations released in May included industry, commercial and transportation sources.

The early draft also emphasized the need for reliable baseline data. The final recommendations are expected to set a clear course for implementing cap-and-trade throughout the west. But ultimately, adoption will be up to participating states and provinces.

Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain have indicated their interest in a cap-and-trade system, which could be similar to this one.