Gibbons holds out

Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2007 | 7:02 a.m.

WASHINGTON - As governors of five Western states revealed plans this week to limit carbon emissions that contribute to global warming, Gov. Jim Gibbons announced that Nevada would conduct a study to determine whether global warming is harming this state.

Gibbons' office said Tuesday that the state is launching a task force that will conduct a sweeping study of global warming, including whether it exists at all in Nevada.

"It has to be neutral," Gibbons' energy adviser Hatice Gecol said. "They need to look into both arguments."

Thousands of scientists who met a month ago for a United Nations conference on global warming reached consensus that pollution contributes to rising temperatures worldwide. More than 110 nations agreed to the final summary, which is expected to serve as a basis for actions by governments worldwide to limit pollution.

Gibbons' office said he was surprised by the Western governors' bold plan, unveiled at the national governors conference in Washington he has been attending.

The plan has been in the works for some time in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Washington and Oregon, all states with governors in office much longer than Gibbons. He was sworn in just two months ago.

Those governors are increasingly frustrated with the federal government's unwillingness to limit greenhouse gases. Ten Northeastern states have formed a similar alliance.

After learning of the Western states' plan, Gibbons said he was interested but had reservations about joining their new cap-and-trade system for carbon.

Such systems set a limit on carbon pollution and establish goals for polluters in each state. A company that meets its goal by using more renewable sources, or by other means, are given pollution credits they can sell. A company that fails to meet its goal can buy credits to cover the gap.

Nevada's leading environmental groups urged the governor to join the other Western states - and Gecol suggested that the state will consider it. "We don't want to put anything on the table or off the table."

The willingness of states to cap emissions could provide a ready market for Nevada's burgeoning renewable resources industry. Clean energy from Nevada's wind, solar and geothermal resources could be sold to industries in other states to help them meet their emissions goals.

The Democratic Congress is entertaining a similar cap-and-trade system.

Scot Rutledge, executive director of the Nevada Conservation League, said that Gibbons should join "with other Western states that are interested in clean renewable energy that we can produce.

"That's where Nevada needs to be. Look at the map. We're right in the middle of it."

Rutledge welcomed the governor's global warming task force and hoped to participate, but only if the group takes the position that "global warming is happening and what are we doing to mitigate the effects."

As the Western governors unveiled their plan, Gibbons joined coal-state governors to announce the formation of the NextGen Energy Council, a new organization made up of intermountain West and Southern states, plus the coal industry.

The group is interested in developing cleaner ways of burning coal and partnering coal with renewable sources to send electricity over transmission lines.

Gibbons sees NextGen's technology as a way to open the door for the coal-to-liquid plant he mentioned in his State of the State speech in January, as well as providing transmission lines to carry renewable power across Nevada or out of state.

NextGen will be trying to win tax breaks from Congress for advanced coal and fossil-renewable hybrid systems.

But many clean-coal technologies still need to be tested, and environmentalists deride the liquefied coal that Gibbons wants as a new source of jet or diesel fuel as no better at reducing global warming emissions than today's gasolines.

Dan Geary, a member of Nevada's renewable energy task force, said he is skeptical that Gibbons will take Nevada in a direction as bold as its Western neighbors. "There hasn't been any indication from this administration about its desire to move into setting targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions."

Gecol said the governor would deliver on renewable energy. Gibbons' first executive order directed state agencies to streamline the permit process for renewables.

"He has a comprehensive energy plan to help unleash Nevada's renewable energy resources to an extent never seen before in our state," Gecol said. "You need to give us a time. It's coming at a step by step."