AUGUSTA – The Maine House passed a version of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Thursday that would allow Maine to participate with nine other eastern states in an effort to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, using a European-style cap-and-trade system.

The bill will get a second reading in the House and then go to the Senate.

Members of the Legislature’s Natural Resources Committee and Utilities and Energy Committee favored the bill’s general concept, but split over the timeline for implementing the initiative. The prevailing report favored a more gradual time scale.

The initiative seeks to limit pollution from large power plants and create financial incentives for energy producers to cut emissions.

Generators that burn fossil fuels would be charged by the state for the right to release heat-trapping carbon dioxide. That money would then go into a grant fund to widely promote energy efficiency in the community.

There was very little debate on the issue.

Rep. Kenneth Fletcher, R-Winslow, said he supported the minority report.

That initiative would increase electricity rates because of the added cost to the generators, he said. With an expedited timeline, it would put the energy conservation system – to be established by the act – in place sooner, so that as costs rise, consumers would be using less energy, balancing their electric bill.

Rep. Lawrence Bliss, D-South Portland, however, said that because Maine would be working in conjunction with other states, specific timelines must be met.

“This is arguably one of the most important things that the Legislature will do this session,” Bliss said.

The majority report passed 129-7.