Indignation comes in two varieties — righteous and, well, the other kind. So when major polluters of the air over New Mexico and other parts of the Four Corners complain that a nonprofit environmental group is playing fast and loose with its petition for a greenhouse-gas emissions cap, we can't help wondering how little of one and how much of the other is involved.

New Mexico's Environmental Improvement Board has been hearing testimony on a proposal by a bunch called New Energy Economy to cap carbon emissions, during the next 10 years, at 25 percent below those being belched in 1990.

That's been a hard pill for the burners of coal, petroleum and even relatively clean-combusting natural gas to swallow.

Among the dinosaurs' arguments is that New Mexico has no business messing with their presumed license to foul the air; leave that up to the federal government, they say — leaving unsaid that their lobbyists in Washington have one- or two-stop shopping on Capitol Hill, rather than having to deal with at least a dozen states seeking to diminish the carbon content in their air.

But even in Congress, their days of doing as they wish with the atmosphere are nearing an end: New Mexico's Sen. Jeff Bingaman and California Rep. Henry Waxman, leaders of the congressional energy committees, have proposed renewable-electricity mandates — among the benefits of which would be lower emissions levels.

For now, court of sorts is in session here in our state — and the power companies, among others, form a defensive line that would make the late Merlin Olsen look like a 97-pound weakling. From the opposition huddle late last week came claims that New Energy Economy first filed one proposal — but after Big Energy figured it had stopped the greenies for a loss by warning of economic disaster, the enviros filed a bunch of technical testimony the next day. The new material, say the industrialists, fundamentally changed the proposal — so throw it out; it amounts to a bait-and-switch tactic, something Corporate America, ahem, would never try ... thus the indignation.

The New Mexico Environmental Law Center, which has been carrying much of the petition load, dismisses the commercial call to dismiss the proposal as so much legal folderol; the companies just plain don't want any greenhouse-gas regulation.

In the best of all possible worlds, we'd agree with the utilosaurs — but in that world, they wouldn't have to be dragged kicking and screaming into a cleaner atmosphere; they'd be doing what Public Service Company of New Mexico is doing already with its forays into wind and solar power, only more so. Thus they would stay a step ahead of the regulators — and score public-relations points in the process.

Instead, too many power companies are pitching "clean coal" — still in its oxymoronic stages — as the future of steam-generated electricity. And New Mexico, in their minds, remains an energy colony, to be dug up, burned out and eventually abandoned when the carbon supply runs out.

If we're to be the supplier of power to surrounding states, let it be by way of rapidly advancing alternative sources.

The latest objection to New Energy's petition no doubt will keep the hearing process going — at enormous costs in lawyers' fees that might be better spent on wind and solar technology.

But with Jeff Bingaman on the case, the companies should see the writing on the wall — and finish the sentences themselves.