...RWE AG is spending to improve the efficiency of its aging coal-fired power plants [in the face of EU limits on CO2 emissions]... RWE and other utilities...have been able to raise electricity rates to more than cover the new costs. Manufacturers [in Germany] that use a lot of juice are fuming... In Germany, the caps are starting to have their intended environmental effect: They are prodding industry to burn fossil fuels more efficiently... Although the U.S....has rejected the Kyoto Protocol, many U.S. business leaders say it is only a matter of time before the country imposes some sort of carbon constraint... To prepare [for the Kyoto Protocol's 2012 emissions targets], the European Union decided to run a road test ending in 2007, levying caps on utilities and energy-intensive industries such as steel, cement and paper... [Steel firm] ThyssenKrupp...says there isn't much it can do to reduce its emissions, most of which come from the chemical process by which steel is produced... So…[a] unit of the company is selling equipment to three South Korean chemical plants that will reduce their emissions of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas believed to be more dangerous to the atmosphere than CO2... [Such] projects produce credits that companies like ThyssenKrupp can buy to offset their emissions back home... Many environmental advocates hope the CO2 caps will force power companies to replace lignite [a CO2-intensive type of coal] with cleaner-burning fuels. Not RWE...[It] coughed out slightly more CO2 last year than it was given allowances to emit. It is scrambling to burn its lignite more efficiently.