US: America's northeastern states are on the brink of a declaration of environmental independence with the introduction of mandatory controls on greenhouse gas emissions of the kind rejected by the Bush administration.
In the first US agreement of its kind, nine states are expected to announce a plan next month to freeze carbon dioxide emissions from power stations by 2009 and reduce them by 10 per cent by 2020. The region generates the same emissions as Germany. The states are New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island and Delaware.