The cap-and-trade program planned by the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) is likely to be smaller than originally planned when it kicks off in 2012, according to a Bloomberg report.
Only two of the U.S. states involved in the Initiative–New Mexico and California–have legislation in place to enforce the program. Across the border in Canada, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec are all prepared to participate in the carbon trading scheme.
But Republican governors in Arizona and Utah said their states would not participate in the cap-and-trade program. Oregon, Washington and Montana have yet to pass laws supporting the program.
Nonetheless, the carbon-trading system is still expected to be about three times larger than the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which conducts carbon trading among power plants in the U.S. Northeast, according to analyst Steve Schleimer with Barclays Capital.
The goal of the WCI is to cut greenhouse gas emissions 15% below 2005 levels by 2020.
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