JACKSON - The Western Governors' Association can influence the energy policy of the next president - whoever that may be - more than any other single group, the association's incoming chairman said Monday.

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman will take over as chairman of the Western Governors' Association at the conclusion of the group's annual meeting here today.

Most of America's new energy production will continue to come from in the West throughout the next century, and no group of leaders in the United States has worked harder to grapple with all of the complexities of rising energy demand, higher costs and the environmental impacts of new energy production than the western governors, Huntsman said.

"What better group is there to weigh in on these issues?" Huntsman told the Star-Tribune following Monday's conference presentations.

The Utah governor said the outgoing chairman, Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal, has put the association of 20 Western states on an important course, and Huntsman has no plans to abandon Freudenthal's direction.

On the contrary, the group has begun to tackle important and urgent issues, Huntsman said.

"I promised Dave Freudenthal I would continue with the work on energy and climate change," he said. "We're not going to be shifting gears mid-stream. We're going to keep driving [the issues of] affordable energy, energy independence and emissions controls."

The next step for the governors' group will be to infuse more science into the policy discussions and continue to reach out globally, because the issues of rising energy costs in the face of global climate change will require global solutions, Huntsman said.

Representatives of the Chinese government were invited to attend this year, and the association will continue reaching out to other nations in the coming years, he said.

Huntsman said the group will also continue working on solutions for the predicted regional water crunch.

Asked if he thought the Western Governors' Association will have any influence over the new American president, Freudenthal said, "Who knows. It's impossible to know."

Freudenthal said it's clear the group of Democratic and Republican governors has been able to develop a bipartisan framework for solving many of the nation's energy problems and for developing strategies and policies that make sense.

"If he's a good president, he'll listen to us," Freudenthal said with a smile. "If he's a bad president, he won't."

Huntsman said if the country wants to "do it right" when it comes to regulating greenhouse gases and encouraging cleaner energy production - along with improved and expanded infrastructure - it's vital to "bring all the stakeholders to the table."

The Western governors have created a roadmap for doing this, and he believes the next president will listen to what the group has to say.