SALEM (AP) - Energy efficiency standards such as upgraded building codes and electricity conserving appliances are among the ways to reduce global warming recommended to Gov. Ted Kulongoski by a group of business leaders, environmentalists, scientists and community representatives.

The advisory group, charged with finding ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Oregon, agreed Wednesday to recommend several major measures to the governor.

The recommended measures also include creating a task force to study how Oregon can adopt California's stricter standards for tailpipe emissions for cars.

But Paul Cosgrove, an Oregon lobbyist for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said there are other, better ways to reduce greenhouse gases in Oregon, a state with far fewer vehicles than California.

"I don't think there is any dispute that maintaining or reducing greenhouse gases is probably a very worthy thing to do," Cosgrove said.

"The question that comes before Oregon and any other state is what can the state realistically do as a small state," he said "We believe there are lots of things that wouldn't involve this controversy, like using and promoting the existing credits from the Department of Energy for hybrids and high-efficiency vehicles."

Jeff Allen, executive director of the Oregon Environmental Council, said that major changes are needed if greenhouse gases are going to be reduced.

"What it comes down to is the governor convened this group to help him make some hard decisions," he said. "We need to tell him that Oregon's cars need to be as clean as California's cars. We are talking about the need for some very fundamental changes."

The state already had adopted a goal of holding carbon dioxide emissions at 1990 levels. But if nothing is done, greenhouse gas emissions in 2025 will be 65 percent above 1990 levels.

The group noted that adopting all of the proposals being forwarded to the governor is the only way that Oregon's emissions in 2025 can be held to 1990 levels.

The dozens of recommendations will be open to public comment in the fall.