SOMERSET, Mass. — Ten power plants in the Northeast last year produced a third of the region's carbon dioxide emissions, considered a major contributor to global warming, according to a report released Tuesday by a coalition of environmental groups.

Brayton Point Station, a predominantly coal-fired plant in Somerset, was the top carbon dioxide emitter, the report said.

The report said Brayton Point released 5.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the air in 2004, representing nearly 5 percent of the total released in the nine-state region.

Two other Massachusetts power plants also were included on the list, along with six plants in New York and one in New Jersey. The report was compiled by the National Association of State Public Interest Research Groups, the Clean Water Fund and Environmental Advocates of New York.

"Actions at relatively few plants will make a big impact and enable the region to achieve a meaningful and effective near-term target for reducing carbon dioxide pollution," the report said.

A spokesman for Dominion, a Richmond, Va.-based energy producer that owns Brayton Point, said in a statement that the power plant already is meeting carbon dioxide emission rules due to take effect in Massachusetts next year.

The company has also been participating in a regional greenhouse initiative, spokesman Dan Genest said.

The nine states in the study were Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Source: Associated Press