One more reason it's great to live in a democracy

U.S. Execs Clamping Down on Environment
By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP
Special Correspondent Thu Dec 8, 7:10 PM ET

MONTREAL - Clamping down on automobile emissions and plugging city buildings into wind or solar power, U.S. governors and mayors are stepping in to help head off climate change where they say the federal government is failing. "Together we can make a huge difference," Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels said Thursday as he and other U.S. city executives worked the corridors of the U.N. climate conference in Montreal. They said they hoped to spur the Bush administration to take the lead. But although federal action is needed, "we cannot afford to wait for federal action," said K.C. Golden, an environmental consultant to U.S. local governments, including Seattle.

State and local governments are taking the lead on curtailing pollution and setting environmental controls. This is a good thing, and these states are establishing the precedent for other states. To be sure, most states are not in favor of rampant pollution, even hard core red states like Texas. While it's true that some are against it more and some are against it less, you really can't find too many people who are in favor of pollution, at least in their states.

President Bush formally renounced the Kyoto accord in 2001, saying capping energy use would stunt the U.S. economy. Other nations hoped the Americans would agree at this annual climate conference to future talks on emissions controls after 2012, when Kyoto expires. But the U.S. delegation has made clear it is not interested

Well, I'm sure we'll soon see whether or not any of these plans that limit greenhouse gasses "stunt the U.S. economy." If they don't, why then should we not apply limits to the nation as a whole? In the last paragraph, the argument is made that the federal government is still needed in this process.

The planned Northeastern trading zone is an example of where federal action is preferable, Nickels said. "Creating a national market to trade credits — that is a very critical part of what our federal government can do," he said.

I suppose this may come down to whether you believe in big government or not, but the fact of the matter is that interstate commerce is the federal government's jurisdiction, and I think we can all acknowledge that pollution is a matter of interstate commerce, especially if we wanted to adopt this kind of "pollution credit" trading plan.