A bipartisan group of Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states, and the District of Columbia, have released a draft plan to curb emissions from gasoline and diesel over the next decade and beyond. More than a year in the making, the plan released this month marks a key step in an ambitious, but fraught, effort to cut the emissions that pour from vehicles and cause climate change. Backers of the plan, which could launch as early as two years from now, cited health and economic analyses showing broad benefits — even beyond preventing the burning of fossil fuels that would release millions of metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. “Transportation issues are regional in their very nature, so it makes sense to act regionally to address them,” said Kathleen Theoharides, secretary of Massachusetts’s executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. A dozen states — Maryland, Virginia, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, […]