Where Feds Pause, States Lead

Concerned about the future of water supplies dependent on mountain snowpack, the prospect of more intense wildfires and other ill effects of global warming, Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. of Utah joined five states and a Canadian province in the Western Regional Climate Action Initiative. In the absence of federal policies that call for anything more than voluntary action to reduce carbon emissions, states, cities and communities are filling the void. The decisions being made by governors, mayors and legislators of all political stripes shows how nonpartisan the issue of climate change action has become. Debate about the best solutions is still robust, but the local action shows the degree to which the issue has pervaded the consciousness of the electorate -- Republican, Democrat or otherwise, according to a story in the May 24 Christian Science Monitor.