Businesses join plan to cut greenhouse gases

— -- A coalition of leading corporations and environmental groups plans to call Thursday for aggressive reductions in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, an initiative that eventually would raise electricity and gasoline prices.

The cuts are in line with targets advocated by President-elect Barack Obama.

When it formed two years ago, the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, which includes some of the USA's top industrial polluters, called for emissions reductions of 60% to 80% by 2050. The coalition today will lay out a far more detailed blueprint, seeking a 42% cut in emissions by 2030.

The proposal comes despite the recession, which could make it difficult to pass costly climate-change legislation this year. But Kyle Danish, a partner in law and policy firm Van Ness Feldman, notes that caps on emissions likely would not begin for several years, after the economy recovers. Meanwhile, he says, businesses want to put their imprint on legislation that's likely to be passed by 2010.

"They want to get in the game," Danish says.

Under the group's proposed cap-and-trade system, utilities, oil companies and other manufacturers would have to acquire an allowance for every ton of greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, that they emit. New power plants would have to buy their permits, while existing ones initially would get much of their allowances free.

Over time, the cap would grow more stringent and allowances prices would rise, forcing utilities, for instance, to replace coal plants with wind farms. The costs are likely to be passed to consumers in higher electric bills or gasoline prices, for example.

The proposal recommends a $10-a-ton minimum for a permit. To prevent CO{-2} permit prices from soaring, it calls for a store of credits to be generated by preserving forests; trees absorb CO{-2}.