Commissioners from the North Dakota Public Service Commission are fighting to keep the area informed on the impact proposed "cap-and-trade" laws would have on the state.

The Waxman-Markey climate change bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives on June 26 and is now before the U.S. Senate. The bill aims to reduce carbon emissions in the U.S. energy production fields by placing caps on the emissions of industries.

Businesses that come in below their prescribed cap can sell the difference to other companies, creating a market-based incentive to lower emissions. Over the years, the cap would tighten, limiting the availability of emissions credits on the market and forcing industries to become cleaner.

The bill would have unique costs to North Dakota, which gets 95 percent of its electric energy from emissions-heavy coal. The state's oil industry also would find demand from refineries restricted by reduced demand due to the emissions standards. The state's dependence on coal-based electricity is the second-highest in the nation and is well ahead of the 48.5 percent national average.

The concern for local opponents of the bill is it drives up the cost of energy production in the state, making it less economically viable to export oil, while at the same time increasing the cost of producing gasoline, which would reduce the demand for oil. "This is a tax on carbon dioxide, so it will hit refineries as well," said North Dakota Public Services Commissioner Brian Kalk. "If they pass this at $30/ton for carbon dioxide, that will be roughly 30 cents a gallon increase on the cost of fuel. This will drive up the price of everything, but particularly things that discharge carbon dioxide when they are made. Oil refineries discharge carbon dioxide, so that's how it impacts the Williston Basin. That will be passed along to consumers."

The commission is going forward with an informational campaign to try to combat the proposal. It's held press conferences and put together a presentation that can be seen at its Web site, http://www.psc.state.nd.us/.

"We're trying to simply educate the rate payers, and assess the impact on rate payers, and just simply lay out those facts for Congress and citizens," said PSC Commissioner Kevin Cramer.

Dave Goodin, CEO of Montana-Dakota Utilities Co., told the commission a $20-per-ton increase in the cost of carbon emissions caused by the cap and trade rules would result in a 40 percent increase in residential electric bills and a 52 percent increase to industrial customers.

Although the cap-and-trade bill passed the House of Representatives 219-212, Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., was one of 44 House Democrats to vote against the bill.

"My thoughts are that this particular bill posed an unacceptable threat to substantially higher electrity rates in North Dakota sometime during the next decade," Pomeroy said. "For that reason, I voted against the bill. I believe that the bill could be substantially improved by having more realistic timeframes for carbon dioxide emission reductions. Basically, the technology that will reduce the carbon dioxide has yet to be demonstrated in commercial scale."

Pomeroy supports moving toward emissions reductions, but wants to do so in a way that has less of a negative impact on North Dakota.

The bill needs to be passed by the Senate and signed by President Barack Obama to make it into law. North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Kent Conrad, D-

N.D., have suggested the cap-and-trade legislation should be put off and revisited in later years because of the economic impacts, but Congress should still address ways to encourage clean energy in a more narrowly tailored bill.