Governor Carcieri has asked his staff to take another look at whether Rhode Island should join the other Northeastern states in supporting a regional greenhouse gas initiative that seeks to reduce carbon pollution by 10 percent by 2010.

In the past, Carcieri has supported some local efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, but balked at the initiative and its 52-point plan because of concerns about its costs.

“The governor has asked for an update in the last several weeks from his staff and we are hoping it provides some information to address his concerns,” spokesman Jeff Neal said last week. “When we decided not to join at that time, that was not intended to be a final decision. As we have more information, it would inform the way we proceed.”

Neal made the review known when asked about several local climate change developments last week.

Attorney General Patrick Lynch announced that he was joining eight other states seeking to block an air permit that would allow construction of three 700-megawatt coal-fired power plants in Kansas. If built, it is estimated the plants would emit up to 18 million tons of carbon dioxide annually.

The attorneys general asked the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to at least require the best technology for reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

At the same time, Lynch sent a letter to Carcieri, renewing his request that the governor allow Rhode Island to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

“At some crucial moment, we will have to decide whether we believe climate change to be a real and viable threat to the health and welfare of our citizens,” Lynch wrote. “I respectfully suggest that the crucial moment is now. And if we decide that climate change is real and that carbon dioxide emissions are its primary cause, then we have a real obligation to take all possible action to avert that threat.”

Finally last week, an advocacy group called Environment Northeast published its own regional road map for reducing global warming pollution.

Environment Northeast describes itself as a group that looks for solutions to problems, rather than just saying there are problems. Its report can be downloaded at the group’s Web site, http://www.env-ne.org/.

The group sets 10 priority items that it says could reduce the region’s output of greenhouse gases by 35 to 40 million metric tons by 2020.

The Environment Northeast report actually shows Rhode Island’s output of greenhouse gases declining since a peak in 1998. But the state still has a way to go to reach 1990 levels.

The report sets as priorities investment in energy-efficient resources, increased energy efficiency in buildings and appliances, reduced emissions from large, stationary sources, commercializing no-carbon and low-carbon energy sources, switching to biofuels, reducing emissions from vehicles and using various technologies to capture carbon.