California lawmakers and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger reached an agreement to make the state the first in the U.S. to impose a cap on greenhouse gas emissions. Under the accord, companies such as PG&E Corp. and Edison International, the state’s two largest utilities, as well as oil refinery operators including BP Plc and Chevron Corp., must cut 25 percent of gas emissions that contribute to global warming over the next 14 years. The bill includes so-called cap-and- trade rules, backed by Schwarzenegger, that will let businesses buy pollution credits from companies that reduce emissions. ‘We can now move forward with developing a market-based system that makes California a world leader in the effort to reduce carbon emissions,” Schwarzenegger said in a statement. California is the world’s 12th-largest source of greenhouse gases, which trap heat in the atmosphere and generally are considered by scientists to be a cause of a rise in global temperatures. California has already passed rules, since challenged by carmakers in court, that would force cuts in carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles, the state’s single largest source of the emissions. ‘This is a much more significant bill than I thought we could get through and […]