NEW YORK, NY October 24, 2007 —Governor Spitzer is issuing the first-ever U.S. regulations to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. They generate a quarter of the state's greenhouse gases.

REPORTER: The regulations would require all power plant owners to pay for the right to emit carbon dioxide. For the next five years, the total amount of emissions up for auction will be capped at current levels, and thereafter they'd be reduced by two and a half percent a year.

SPITZER: we are not giving away the right we are saying you must buy it. As that price goes up and it becomes more expensive to pay for those emissions the incentive to decrease them will increase consequently.

REPORTER: New York is part of a ten-state consortium participating in the carbon dioxide auction. A spokesman for Keyspan, one of the largest power plant owners in New York, is praising the plan for the "certainty" it brings to the market.

The regulations are subject to public hearings but require no legislative approval. The state hopes to hold the first carbon emission auction next summer. For WNYC, I'm Andrea Bernstein.