Jan 11 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Chris Mulick Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash.

Follow-up legislation to last year's climate change bill could be unveiled as soon as Monday, setting the stage for broader limits on polluters.

The goal is to eventually develop what is known as a "cap-and-trade" system in the West.

States would "cap" carbon dioxide and other emissions at strict limits.

Large polluters that exceed the cap, such as some power stations or companies with big automotive fleets, would "trade" or buy credits from those that pollute less.

The legislation, which may be announced at a Monday news conference in Seattle, wouldn't go that far.

"This bill will not create a cap-and-trade system in Washington or the West Coast," said Jay Manning, director of the state Department of Ecology.

"This year will be taking the next step forward on how to implement that," said Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane. She said this year's bill will effectively draw up a road map on how to get there.

Becky Kelley, campaign director for the Washington Environmental Council, said it "lays out some basic principles" and directs Ecology to help coordinate the design of the regional system to bring back to the Legislature for approval at year's end.

The Legislature approved climate change legislation last year that most notably spelled doom for new coal plants in Washington.

Setting up a cap-and-trade system is seen as the next step forward for curbing emissions from a broader array of polluters. But Washington couldn't do it alone to make it work, Kelley said. Other Western states will have to be brought into the mix.

"We aren't a big enough economy to make that a rational, effective system on our own," she said.

Manning said the bill will borrow from two ongoing efforts to reduce greenhouse gases -- the governor's Climate Action Team and the Western Climate Initiative among Western states.

"This bill will pick up pieces from both," Manning said this week. "We are in the throes of negotiations right now."

Richland Republican Sen. Jerome Delvin, a member of the Climate Action Team and the Legislature's most vocal global warming naysayer, said he's familiar with the measure and that "it's pretty innocuous stuff."

He said he's prodded supporters to actually propose enacting a cap-and-trade system during the legislative session that begins Monday, believing they wouldn't find much public support.

"They're playing it pretty conservative," Delvin said. "I keep daring them."