AUGUSTA – A state plan to stop more than 11 million metric tons of greenhouses gases from being emitted over the next 16 years by Maine homes, cars and industries was released to the public Friday morning, beginning the hard work of turning back the clock on air pollution and energy waste.

As new symptoms of global climate change emerge, Maine is taking a leadership role to protect the state’s natural resource industries and the health of its residents, according to Gov. John Baldacci.

“[The plan] ensures that in terms of greenhouse gases, Maine will have a vibrant future, one that’s ahead of the curve,” he said.

Climate change is a complex phenomenon that leads to unpredictable temperatures and weather. However, all but a few scientists worldwide believe that in recent decades human activities – particularly the increased burning of fossil fuels – have caused something known as the “greenhouse effect,” by which certain gases blanket the planet at unnatural levels, trapping solar radiation and causing the Earth to start growing warmer. On average, greenhouse gas levels and global temperatures have been on upward trends since the industrial revolution.

At the federal level, the United States has been slow to respond, with administration officials declining to participate in the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty among most industrialized nations that set worldwide goals for greenhouse gas reductions.

In response to the lack of federal action, a number of states have taken the issue into their own hands. Maine, along with the other New England states and Atlantic Canadian provinces, has pledged to cut back its contribution to global warming to 1990 levels by 2010, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an additional 10 percent by 2020, with the eventual goal of a 75 percent reduction.

Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Dawn Gallagher said Friday that with the 54 measures included in the state’s plan, her department can meet the 2020 deadline. Without action, Maine would produce 9 million tons of greenhouse gasses in the year 2020 alone, about a third more than the state would produce under the plan, she said.

Maine has already implemented a number of the measures in the plan, including energy and gasoline efficiency efforts that have reduced the state government’s greenhouse gas emissions by 8 percent over the last two years, Baldacci said.

As snow fell on the State House on Friday morning, the governor cited the particularly seasonal example of the new LED Christmas lights hanging on the Blaine House tree, which use at least 80 percent less energy than traditional lights and will have paid for themselves in a single season, he said.

According to Gallagher, her department will work internally to promote some policies, such as the new clean-car quotas approved by the Board of Environmental Protection on Thursday. Others, like energy-efficiency efforts that businesses are being encouraged to make, will be voluntary. But the commissioner expects to spend much of the next two years working with the group of lawmakers, scientists, environmentalists and businesspeople who developed the plan over the summer, to promote the legislation that will bring new policies to life.

Highlights of the plan include:

. Voluntary changes to forest practices, to encourage trees to store carbon, keeping it from contributing to the greenhouse effect. Maine’s plan revealed new science about how forests manage carbon, suggesting that many of the forest practices already in use, such as the thinning of commercial stands, may help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

. New restrictions on the cars that can be sold in Maine, and incentives for consumers who purchase “green” vehicles, to reduce tailpipe pollution and increase energy efficiency. For example, the plan includes a controversial “feebate” system that would charge consumers who purchase high greenhouse gas-emitting vehicles. The state then would use those funds to provide rebates to consumers who select more efficient models.

. The installation of systems to burn the methane that seeps from landfills as waste decomposes, to produce energy while eliminating a source of greenhouse gasses. Such a system has already been proposed as part of the pending West Old Town Landfill deal.

. Approving a suite of measures to encourage more use of renewable sources of energy that contribute less to global warming, such as biomass, solar, hydroelectric, wind and geothermal facilities, both on the public utility level and in private homes.

. Establish a system of measuring and regulating greenhouse gasses so Maine will be in a position to benefit if New England, as planned, develops a market for trading “greenhouse credits,” whereby companies that exceed their goals can sell the right to emit to companies whose older equipment or other challenges keep them from reducing emissions.

At least 15 other states and several cities have some kind of plan for reducing their contribution to global warming and another 24 states are working on plans. Maine’s goals are more specific than many other efforts, however. And thus far, Maine is the only state to have codified its goals in law. A bill directing DEP to develop the plan that was released Friday was approved by legislators in 2003.

Historic support doesn’t ensure the success of those measures that still require legislative approval, however. In November, 59 new representatives and 19 new senators won seats, and few – those House members who won Senate seats – have played any role in the state’s climate change planning.

But Gallagher, Baldacci and Rep. Ted Koffman, D-Bar Harbor, who is likely to remain co-chairman of the Joint Standing Committee on Natural Resources, all said Friday that they don’t intend to let Maine’s climate action plan sit on the shelf.

“It’s all about implementation,” Baldacci said.

The full plan and all its supporting research can be read online at http://maineghg.raabassociates.org.