Leaders from 18 states that have bypassed the Bush administration and set tough greenhouse gas limits agreed on Friday to try to shape the next administration's climate policy by contacting the presidential candidates. "President McCain, President Obama, President Clinton would all shift this country to a much higher level on climate change," California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, told a meeting of state leaders at Yale University.
By Timothy Gardner
NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (Reuters) - Leaders from 18 states that have bypassed the Bush administration and set tough greenhouse gas limits agreed on Friday to try to shape the next administration's climate policy by contacting the presidential candidates.
"President McCain, President Obama, President Clinton would all shift this country to a much higher level on climate change," California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, told a meeting of state leaders at Yale University.
The presidential hopefuls -- Republican John McCain and Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton -- favor tougher limits than President George W. Bush on greenhouse gas emissions.
!ADVERTISEMENT!Bush, who will step down in January, unveiled a plan on Wednesday that would cap U.S. emissions by 2025. He has opposed tough mandatory cuts, saying they would harm the economy.
California, Illinois, Florida and 15 other states will "reach out to major presidential candidates as a means of shaping the first 100 days of the next administration," on climate, according to the agreement signed on Friday. They will share their experience in forming emissions plans to create state and federal partnerships on climate.
The leaders also marked the centennial of a governors meeting with former President Theodore Roosevelt that established a conservation partnership between the states and the federal government and helped create the U.S. park system.
Schwarzenegger, a Republican, said a deadlock between the United States, by many counts the world's top greenhouse gas emitter, and rapidly developing countries, like China and India, on working together to cut emissions would loosen if a new U.S. administration takes the lead on climate change.
New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, a Democrat, told the meeting that national action to cut planet-warming gases could help repair U.S. relations with countries that have urged the United States to do more on climate.
"We have a vacuum in Washington that not only hurts the states, but our reputation internationally," Corzine said.
In the agreement, the leaders said they represent more than half of the U.S. population and emit more than half of the country's greenhouse emissions.
Daniel Esty, a professor of environmental studies at Yale, said the states have begun contacting some of the presidential candidates.
The other states in the pact were Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Virginia and Washington.
