New York (Platts)--22May2007

The US will have in place within two years a cap-and-trade program
designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors of the economy,
former New York Governor George Pataki said Tuesday.

      "The debate on climate change is over. Al Gore has finally won," Pataki
said in remarks to the Carbon Finance and Investment Summit in New York.

     Pataki, who started the regional greenhouse gas initiative that now
includes nine Northeast US states, said national security issues will be as
important as environmental issues in spurring GHG regulations given that the 
US imports oil from "some unfriendly regimes, that don't share our values."

     "We send a billion dollars a day overseas and all we do is pollute the
atmosphere and fund groups that want to attack America," he said at the
conference, sponsored by Infocast. 

     Pataki denounced the "false choice between clean air and economic
prosperity." As governor, he ordered the use of hybrid buses in New York in
1996 at a time when many officials claimed the technology was not available.
But the mandate stimulated development and now the buses are being
manufactured in New York, and being exported to Mexico City and elsewhere, he
said.

     "Don't throw your hands in the air and say 'how much sacrifice will we
have to bear' instead say 'how much opportunity is there?' We can develop
technologies that we can export to countries like China and India, which must
be part of the solution," Pataki said. 

     Pataki also called on US government to take other steps, such as a
national renewable portfolio standard, as well as a national energy
conservation program, along with providing more incentives for use renewable
fuels.

     Pataki currently works for the law firm Chadbourne and Parke and he is
partner at consulting firm Pataki and Kahill Group.