Ten Northeast states that are hoping to pass legislation cutting greenhouse gas emissions have released a study refuting business claims that the plan would drasticly raise electricity rates.

Businesses who oppose a plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions in nine Northeastern U.S. states have overestimated how much the plan will raise electric bills, according to a study released by the states Monday.

The study sponsored by the Northeast states showed the plan by nine governors to cut greenhouse emissions would raise electricity rates only between 0.3 and 6.9 percent — not by 23 percent, as a business group had contended.

By the end of the year, the states hope to pass the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions 10 percent by 2010.

New York Governor George Pataki, a Republican, initiated the plan in a break with President George Bush, who favors voluntary emissions reductions and dropped out of the Kyoto Protocol in 2001.

Are you listening, Mayor O’Malley? We are asking Baltimore to join every other major city in the Northeast by adopting a plan to cut the city’s greenhouse gas emissions. Should you become governor, we will be asking for you to join the Northeast states’ greenhouse gas initiative.