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ByRobGillies TheAssociatedPress TORONTO Canada an- nounced Friday it plans to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per- cent below 2005 levels by 2030 amid international ef- forts to create a new frame- work for addressing climate change. Prime Minister Ste- phen Harper's Conserva- tive government said it formally submitted its tar- get to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ahead of the major climate change conference in Paris in De- cember. The U.S. has committed to a 26 percent to 28 per- cent cut by 2025 from 2005 levels. The EU has a target of 35 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. Japan is pro- posing to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by up to 26 percent by 2030. China, the world's largest emitter, has not officially filed its target yet, but China did set a tar- get for the country's emis- sions to peak by 2030 in a joint climate announce- ment with the U.S. last No- vember. A new international framework replacing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol is to be discussed at the Paris conference. The anti- global warming treaty has been largely ineffective be- cause only rich countries were required to limit their emissions. Poorer countries have been re- luctant to make commit- ments in a new frame- work. Harper pulled Canada out of the Kyoto Protocol in 2011, saying the accord would not help solve the climate crisis. That dealt a blow to the treaty, which had not been formally re- nounced by any other coun- try. The U.S. never signed up. Canadian Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq said the new target is fair and ambitious and reflects the country's economic cir- cumstances. Eliot Diriniger, executive vice president of the U.S.- based Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, said Canada's target is roughly comparable to the U.S. and the EU targets. "Given that Canada pulled out of the Kyoto Pro- tocol and that it is not on track to meet its 2020 tar- get, Canada will have to work very hard to persuade the international commu- nity that it can deliver on its 2030 target," Diriniger said. "It would require signifi- cant effort beyond business as usual to deliver that re- duction." Environmentalists have long criticized Canada as being an outlier on efforts to curb climate change. Harper has called Canada an emerging energy super- power and has avoided do- ing anything to get in the way of that. Canada has the world's third-largest oil reserves, with more than 170 billion barrels. Daily production is expected to more than double by 2025. Only Saudi Arabia and Venezuela have more reserves. But critics say the enormous amount of energy and water needed in the extraction process increases green- house gas emissions. ENVIRONMENT Ca na da p la ns t o cu t emissions by 2030 By Jesse J. Holland The Associated Press WASHINGTON An alli- ance of Asian American groups on Friday filed a federal complaint against Harvard University, saying that school and other Ivy League institutions are us- ing racial quotas to admit students other than high- scoring Asians. More than 60 Chinese, Indian, Korean and Pak- istani groups came to- gether for the complaint, which was filed with the civil rights offices at the Justice and Education de- partments. They are call- ing for an investigation and say these schools should stop using racial quotas or racial balancing in admission. "We are seeking equal treatment regardless of race," said Chunyan Li, a professor and civil rights activist, who said they'd rather universities use income rather than race in affirmative action pol- icies. Harvard says its ap- proach to admissions has been found to be "fully compliant with federal law." Officials also say the number of Asian students admitted increased from 17.6 percent to 21 percent over the last decade. "We will vigorously de- fend the right of Harvard, and other universities, to continue to seek the ed- ucational benefits that come from a class that is diverse on multiple di- mensions," said Robert Iuliano, Harvard's gen- eral counsel. Iuliano pointed to the Supreme Court's landmark 1978 decision in Regents of University of California v. Bakke, which upheld affir- mative action and specif- ically cited Harvard's ad- missions plan as a "legally sound approach" to admis- sions. Harvard and the Uni- versity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were sued last year by "Students for Fair Admission," a non- profit group based in Aus- tin, Texas, made up of re- cently rejected applicants who argue that affirmative action policies should be banned at colleges across the nation. The federal suits allege Harvard and UNC rely on race-based affirmative action policies that im- pact admissions of high- achieving white and Asian American students. The Harvard lawsuit also con- tends that the Ivy League university specifically lim- its the number of Asian Americans it admits each year. Yukong Zhao, who or- ganized the groups for Friday's complaint, chal- lenged Harvard to open its admission books to prove that Asians were not pur- posefully being put at a disadvantage. "We want to help this country move forward," Zhao said. RACIAL QUOTAS Asian groups file complaint over Harvard admission practices By Alan Fram The Associated Press WASHINGTON House Re- publicans introduced a two-month extension of the federal highway and mass transit program Fri- day, barely two weeks be- fore the government's au- thority to help finance projects around the coun- try expires. Republicans from both chambers said they ex- pected Congress to ap- prove the legislation next week. Lawmakers are sched- uled to leave the capital by next Friday for a week- long Memorial Day recess. Without an extension, of- ficials worry that federal cash infusions to projects around the country would slow or halt just as the summer construction sea- son begins. White House spokes- man Eric Schultz charged that it would be a "dere- liction of responsibility" for lawmakers to return to their districts without approving the legislation. "They should not leave town before doing that," he said Friday. Legislators have long wanted to craft a long- term extension of the pro- gram but have repeat- edly gridlocked over how to pay for it. As a result, Congress has approved a series of short-term exten- sions — most recently, one enacted last summer that expires June 1. The bulk of federal road building money comes from the federal gasoline tax, which has been 18.4 cents per gallon since 1993. There is also a 24.4 cents- per-gallon diesel fuel tax, also unchanged in two de- cades. Fearing retribution from voters, lawmakers have been leery of raising that tax, even as vehicles become more fuel-efficient and inflation rises. The trust fund has veered near insolvency several times since 2008, with Congress keeping it afloat with gen- eral Treasury funds. Two top House lawmak- ers — Transportation and Infrastructure Commit- tee Chairman Bill Shus- ter, R-Pa., and Ways and Means Committee Chair- man Paul Ryan, R-Wis. — said in a written state- ment that they want to ex- tend the highway program through 2015. Financing it through July will provide legislators more time to find a way to do that, they said. "Doing so will require our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to be con- structive in working to- ward a solution," they said. Ryan and Shuster said there is enough money left in the federal highway trust fund to last through July, but an extension is needed of federal author- ity to provide the aid to the states. Senate Finance Com- mittee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, supports the two-month extension to give lawmakers time to find a longer-term so- lution, said spokeswoman Julia Lawless. CONGRESS House GOP plans 2-month extension of highway funds By Colleen Slevin and Matthew Brown The Associated Press DENVER Beset by power plant closures, growing reg- ulatory scrutiny and pro- posed changes in how they pay royalties, coal mines are facing a new obstacle — a review of how coal ex- tracted and burned will impact the air and global warming. Under a series of rulings by U.S. judges in Denver over the last year, federal agencies that approve min- ing projects have been told to take into account coal's indirect environmental im- pact along with traditional concerns about mine dust and equipment emissions. The immediate effects of the rulings appear limited to a single mine in north- western Colorado that could lose its permit if a new environmental review isn't completed within four months. But industry repre- sentatives fear the rulings, if allowed to stand, could set an example for other judges to follow and even- tually threaten the mines that make up the backbone of an industry already fac- ing uncertainty. Two of the rulings involv- ing Colorado mines, from U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson, say greenhouse gas emissions need to be consid- ered in environmental re- views. A similar case threat- ens to block production at another mine, in the coal- rich Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming. An- other federal judge also re- cently ruled that a mine on the Navajo Nation must con- sider the effects of burning coal before expanding. The agency at issue in the two most recent cases, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforce- ment, is part of the Interior Department and regulates the environmental effects of mining across the coun- try. Office spokesman Chris Holmes said the agency is still reviewing the rulings and hasn't decided what do to next. But fighting them would put the Obama ad- ministration in an awk- ward position because of its efforts to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas. The cases focused on coal from federal leases, which account for about 40 per- cent of U.S. production, but could open the door to sim- ilar legal challenges across the industry. In his most recent deci- sion, issued May 8, Jackson said the surface mining of- fice must redo an environ- mental review for a coal mining project that's been underway for nearly a de- cade in northwestern Colo- rado or he would yank the mine's permit. The Colowyo Mine says losing the permit would lead to job losses for some of its 220 miners. Colowyo is one of two mines that provide most coal for Colorado's Craig Station power plant, which generates about 8 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, according to fed- eral emissions data. Jackson, an Obama ap- pointee, said if the gov- ernment "can predict how much coal will be produced, it can likewise attempt to predict the environmental effects of its combustion." Coal industry represen- tatives said mines already face delays in permit- ting and adding more re- view would make matters worse. Colorado Mining Association President Stu- art Sanderson said calculat- ing a mine's contribution to global warming is meaning- less because it's dwarfed by unregulated emissions in the developing world. "It's pushing the enve- lope of regulation that is not in the nation's inter- ests," Sanderson said of the rulings. But legal experts say the rulings reflect an emerg- ing trend of linking fossil fuel extraction to climate change. "The agencies could con- tinue to act just as they have been, but the cost of what they're doing will be more public and clear," said Justin Pidot, an assistant professor at the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law. While he doesn't think the Colowyo mine will be forced to close, Mark Squil- lace, director of the Univer- sity of Colorado's Natural Resources Law Center, said the more thorough reviews could lead the government to deny coal mining meant for export. "I think the government is going to have to give se- rious thought to whether they're going to allow that to go forward," he said. Environmentalists say the rulings will help open up what they view as an in- dustry-tilted process so the public can decide if burning coal is worth the cost. "I think the more we learn and the more hon- est accounting we get from the federal government, the more we will decide we don't like it," said Jer- emy Nichols of WildEarth Guardians, which sued to stop the mining in north- western Colorado and also was part of lawsuits to block mine expansions in Somerset, Colorado, and Decker, Montana. In the Somerset case, Jackson stopped the ex- pansion of Arch Coal, Inc.'s West Elk mine last year partly because the Bureau of Land Management con- sidered but rejected calcu- lating the impact of future greenhouse emissions. In April, another Denver federal judge, John Kane, ruled that the surface min- ing office must consider the effects of burning coal at a northwestern New Mexico power plant before allowing an expansion of the Navajo Nation's Navajo Mine. En- vironmentalists there were mostly concerned with mer- cury pollution impacting fish in the San Juan River. The Navajo Nation com- pany that owns the mine has appealed Kane's ruling. REGULATIONS Rulings require feds to consider carbon impact of coal mines JAMESMACPHERSON—THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILE Lignite coal is mined at the Freedom Mine in Beulah, N.D. JIM COLE — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE A plume of steam billows from the coal-fired Merrimack Station in Bow, N.H. 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