Lead, Follow, Or Get Out of the Way

6 Western governors have had it waiting for the President to get the message on climate change; they're doing something about it:

Half a dozen Western governors impatient for more federal action on global warming are mounting state campaigns to deal with climate change on their own...

"Under the Bush administration, the United States is ignoring the world's best scientists on climate change," says New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat named in polls as a possible presidential candidate. "The real action ... is at the state and local level."  

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer ordered a climate change advisory board to come up with recommendations by July 2007 to cut greenhouse gases.

Arizona's climate change panel will report by June 30. Oregon and Washington plan to adopt California's limits on auto tailpipe emissions, the strictest in the nation. An Oregon task force could limit power plant emissions.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has set targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and has asked a climate team to recommend by December how to make the cuts.

(Arnold) Schwarzenegger directed a "climate action team" in June to find ways to cut emissions by 2010, with further reductions by 2020. California's climate team is to release its plan in early March. Strategies may include a gasoline surcharge for research on alternative fuels and mandatory emissions reports by industries that generate carbon dioxide...

Oregon and Washington plan to adopt California's limits on auto tailpipe emissions, the strictest in the nation. Arizona established a climate change panel to come up with an action plan by June 30.

Seven states in the Northeast pledged in December to limit emissions from power plants. This month, the California Public Utilities Commission announced plans to cap such emissions as well. Mayors in 202 cities nationwide, led by Seattle's Greg Nickels, have pledged to meet emission goals spelled out in the Kyoto treaty.

State and local governments have always been a policy incubator for both sides of the aisle. This is significant that so many governors (and mayors; 202 of them!) are moving on this issue in the absence of federal leadership. They are by definition not as beholden to the interests who seek to limit federal policy. It's more signs of an Irrelevant Presidency as we move past 2006 and beyond. I strongly support these efforts in the West to get climate change under control. It should come as no surpriose that these states have some of the most open, pristine land in the country. They have the most at stake.