While the Bush administration takes a
light-handed approach to curbing global warming, West Coast
governors are determined to give the cause some regulatory punch.
In September, outgoing California Gov. Gray Davis, in collaboration
with Gov. Gary Locke, D-Wash., and Gov. Ted Kulongoski, D-Ore.,
announced a new, region-wide approach to slowing greenhouse gas
emissions.
The governors plan to use the states’
combined purchasing power to buy fuel-efficient vehicles and tires
for state agencies; lower diesel fuel emissions from ships and
trucks; encourage the use of renewable energy sources; create a
system to monitor greenhouse gas emissions; and set standards for
more energy-efficient appliances.
The announcement comes
in the wake of lawsuits filed by nine East Coast attorneys general
against the Environmental Protection Agency for weakening the Clean
Air Act. Oregon and Washington are expected to join eight other
states in another lawsuit that would force the EPA to regulate
greenhouse gases, which the Bush administration says the agency
does not have the authority to do.
The West Coast
governors say they will present their joint policy recommendations
by Sept. 1, 2004. “This issue is too important for inaction
to take place. Global warming is not some fad,” says Davis
spokesperson Byron Tucker. But it remains to be seen whether
California’s new governor-elect, Arnold Schwarzenegger, will
support the agreement. According to The New York Times,
Schwarzenegger has set the more modest goal of modifying one of his
Hummers to run on hydrogen.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline West Coast states tackle global warming.
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