Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 27, 1990                   TAG: 9007270100
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

STATES URGED TO CUT EMISSIONS

The 10 states with the highest emissions account for half the total carbon dioxide put into the air in the United States, the Natural Resources Defense Council said.

Those states together would rank third in the world as a source of carbon dioxide, one of the gases believed by scientists to be most responsible for what is known as the "greenhouse effect," leading to higher temperatures around the world.

The NRDC, a public interest environmental organization, issued a study called "The Statehouse Effect: State Policies to Cool the Greenhouse."

Daniel A. Lashof, senior project scientist at the council, said the report was timed to influence the annual meeting of National Governors Association, opening Sunday in Mobile, Ala. Proposed action to fight global warming is on the governors' agenda.

"The principal finding of our report is that states are big players when it comes to global warming," he said.

The study recommends that state governments promote energy efficiency with tough building codes and appliance standards, call a moratorium on investing in new coal-fired power plants, encourage utilities to invest in energy efficiency, reduce harvesting of state forests and plant more trees.

The study, based on 1988 figures, reported that Texas, the leader in emissions, put out more carbon dioxide than Britain or Italy, while second-ranked California put out more than France or Mexico. The other top-10 emitting states were Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Louisiana, New York, Michigan and Florida.