When Does an Agreement between State Governments become Collusion?

I don't have a particular problem with reducing emissions or being more enviromentally conservative, I am after a conservative, but this new "agreement" has gone too far.

-An aside- How come intrastate collusion to screw us on taxes is allowed? If we allegedly have the right to be protected from "illegal monopolies" that seek to restrain competition that would otherwise work in the consumers favor, do we not have the right to be free from agreements that would artificially cause our taxes to go higher?

"Enforcement of emission controls could potentially result in higher energy prices in the nine states, which officials hope can be offset by subsidies and support for the development of new technology that would be paid for with the proceeds from the sale of emission allowances to the utility companies."1

So... in essence you and I, the tax payer are to be squeezed in new war between the leftist polticians and electorate of the blue states and the rightist/conservative/libetarian/conservative democrat/everyone else the left has alientated and disenfranchised on their road to utopia blue states.2

Who's next?

"In recent years, New York and other Northeastern states have aggressively tried to reduce power plant emissions. Several have joined together to sue coal-fired power plants in Midwestern states that produce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide that drift across state borders and cause acid rain in the Northeast"1

Oh wait, we're next. Or rather whatever source of money can be found for politicians to buy votes are next. You evil smokers, you evil fat people, you evil air conditioner users...

Returning to my original topic is dificult as I would love to go off on this environmental nonsense, not that we do not have significant problems, but agreements like this are merely to address the symptoms. The true problem is that we need more and cleaner means to produce energy, not more ways to make peoples lives more difficult. Nuclear power, rebuilding and modernizing our hydroelectical damns (most of which are nearing the end of their projected functional lives), building those wind farms that the leftists don't like3, geothermal power and -a new one- ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC)4. Hell even home solar panels make sense now. But why won't those subsidies go for home solar, because that would make the people energy independent and the government, whose business should be protecting us from all forms of malfeasance, has tried to expand into providing for all of our needs.

Notes
1-NYT Article I quote several times from this wisdom of the left.
2- The left has now begun to disenfranchise illegal aliens.

• Gov Bill Richardson
• Gov Janet Napolitano

3-Cape Cod times
4- Wired