Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Federalism In Action

The New York Times reports that nine Northeastern States have come to an agreement to cap powerplant emissions and then reduce them 10 percent by 2020. This action come in the wake of the White House refusing to regulate greenhouse gases that lead to global warming. Leading this charge is the Republican governor and 2008 GOP hopeful, George Pataki of New York.

As I said in a previous post, it seems that we will have to rely on the states to come up with substatial change on issues like oil dependency. With the White House still douting that global warming even exists, it is up to local Republicans to come up with solutions to deal with this potential threat. Kudos to Pataki for taking leadership in an area where Republicans in Washington fear to tread.

1 Comments:

At 8:11 AM, Blogger Brian said...

This is an example of why governors tend to be less ideological and more pragmatic than legislators or Congessmen.

New York has always had a keen interest in air quality issues because acid rain has devastated NY's enormous Adirondack Park. A park where residents rely heavily on outdoor tourism for their livelihood. No fish because acid rain kills lakes? No fishermen tourists. Warmer weather because of climate change? Fewer skiing tourists. That's why it always annoys me that people act like environmental concern and commercial concerns are mutually exclusive.

 

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