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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Western Climate Initiative: “Thumbs Up” and “Thumbs Down” in MT

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Friday, August 15, 2008   

Helena, MT - A "great idea" still looking for "greatness." That's one assessment of the "Western Climate Initiative," a group of seven western states, including Montana, and four Canadian provinces that have banded together to create a regional cap-and-trade plan to address climate change. But the plan isn't coming together as well as had been expected, according to some observers.

The idea behind the initiative is to hold polluters accountable financially for damaging the environment, and then to invest some of that money into protecting against more wildfires and repairing damaged rivers, according to Tom France with the National Wildlife Federation. His concern is that those details are missing from the draft plan.

"It really doesn't require the polluters to pay, in terms of buying emission credits and beginning to cap the production of greenhouse gases."

The plan, to be released in September, is not yet finalized. Public comments are still being accepted. France says it's critical to get the plan right because it will be a blueprint for other regional initiatives and federal legislation.

Some companies that emit climate-change-linked pollution have voiced concerns over cap-and-trade costs and requirements. However, France argues, climate change is expensive for Montana, too. He cites less water during the growing season, higher temperatures, more bug infestations of forests, and longer and more intense fire seasons. All of these effects generate costs that could be partially offset by requiring companies to buy pollution credits, he says.

"We can be using revenues produced by carbon credits to really address some of these news costs that are out there."

The proposal and information about the "Western Climate Initiative" are available at
www.westernclimateinitiative.org.


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