SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Energy regulators from four U.S. Western states, saying they cannot wait for the Bush administration to act on climate change, signed an agreement on Friday to cooperate to promote energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

The move by the public utilities commissions of California, Oregon, Washington and New Mexico is likely to draw in other states in the West, officials said.

A meeting of the four state commissions in San Francisco to adopt a “Joint Action Framework on Climate Change,” drew regulatory and legislative representatives from Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada and even a group from Australia.

“The Bush administration has continually failed to take action” to fight global warming, Ben Lujan, chairman of the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission, said.

Scientists say evidence is growing that the world is risking dangerous climate change from emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

The Bush administration has consistently rejected capping greenhouse emissions as bad for business and U.S. workers.

Michael Peevey, president of the California commission, said the Western states “can’t wait for the feds” to work for emissions standards, energy efficiency programs and more renewable energy.

The new Democratic-controlled Congress will focus on global warming, Peevey said, adding that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (news, bio, voting record), a California Democrat, will introduce legislation to combat climate change.

The Western regulators, however, emphasized that while they will cooperate regionally on energy problems, what they really need is a nationwide strategy to develop renewable energy supplies and set up energy efficiency and conservation programs to cut emissions from power plants fueled by coal or natural gas.

“We need a national effort…it won’t work to have a patchwork of state approaches,” Mark Sidran, chairman of the Washington commission, said at a news conference.

The Western regulators, however, emphasized that while they will cooperate regionally on energy problems, what they really need is a nationwide strategy to develop renewable energy supplies and set up energy efficiency and conservation programs to cut emissions from power plants fueled by coal or natural gas.

“We need a national effort…it won’t work to have a patchwork of state approaches,” Mark Sidran, chairman of the Washington commission, said at a news conference.

California is the only state that has ordered caps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, by 25 percent by 2020, and the state is working on forming a cap-and-trade program with market-based emissions trading.

Peevey said California is studying a regional emissions trading system being formed by eight states in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic — the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative

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