Regional programs in the Northeast, Midwest and West were said to be struggling to develop their own policies to cut GHG emissions as states faced difficulties in gaining a consensus on key issues, the Arizona Republic reported. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative was the only program to have begun auctioning emissions credits, but was seen as failing to put pressure on parties to cut their emissions because the credits were underpriced.
The RGGI's Pete Grannis touted the movements as the innovators and laboratories for federal climate policy. Pew Center on Global Climate Change VP Judi Greenwald said the auction was "working fine," but the Western Climate Initiative was facing opposition from governors in Arizona and Utah, as well as business groups and other critics. Thus far, California was the only state to pass legislation authorizing a cap-and-trade program for the initiative.
Western Climate Initiative co-chairman Michael Gibbs noted: "One of the strengths of WCI from our perspective is that we do have a broad diversity of opinion of how to design this. We think we will end up with something that works well as a model. It's producing a design with broad appeal."
