Romney initially supported a regional greenhouse gas cap-and-trade initiative for New England and eastern Canada, but he ultimately withdrew his support when he was unable to ensure establishment of certain limits on the penalty fees businesses would be charged for exceeding emissions allowances. A week later, his administration issued a rule allowing companies to pay a fine instead of having to clean up emissions of toxins like mercury. Both decisions were made as Romney announced he would not run for a second term as governor and began to focus on entering the 2008 presidential campaign. Some former Romney policy advisors later told the "New York Times" that his political team had been afraid that, with industry being opposed to the cap-and-trade proposal, Romney's having included Massachusetts in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative would have made Romney's chance of winning a presidential campaign very unlikely.