Look to states for leadership

By Scot Lehigh, The Boston Globe, April 25, 2006

The states have long been the laboratories of democracy -- and these days, those public-policy workshops are striving to fill a vacuum created by the federal government.

From global warming to healthcare and stem cell research, the states are moving into areas where the Bush administration declines to take meaningful action.

With the president basically ignoring global warming -- and administration operatives having been accused of attempting to muzzle government scientists who insist immediate measures are a must -- a number of states are trying to reduce greenhouse gases themselves.

Because it is the world's 12th-largest emitter of those gases, California is crucial to that effort. Although specific legislation has not yet passed, the Golden State goal is to cut greenhouse emissions to 1990 levels over the next 15 years. One important political development came this month, when Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared his support, albeit gingerly, for eventual emissions caps on industry.

California has already set rules requiring a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles by an average of 29 percent by 2016. There, the state faces not just a lawsuit from the auto industry but opposition from the Bush administration.

Still, nine other states have adopted the same vehicle exhaust rules. Together, the states moving forward constitute about one-third of the US auto market, says Ashok Gupta, director of the air and energy program at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Eight Eastern states, meanwhile, have also taken up the broader cause of combating global warming with the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. That effort, catalyzed by New York Governor George Pataki, another Republican, is aimed at stabilizing, and eventually reducing, greenhouse emissions through a cap-and-trade system for power plants. ''It's a step in the right direction, but a small step," says Seth Kaplan, senior attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation.

Regrettably, Massachusetts and Rhode Island have abandoned that effort. Although Governor Romney has cited cost issues, some suspect that national political concerns better explain his opposition. Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Maryland are all moving ahead.

''Because there is a vacuum of leadership from Washington, the governors on a bipartisan basis have really stepped up to the plate when it comes to global warming," says Gupta.

On the issue of healthcare, national attention has been focused on Massachusetts lately.

After months of work by the Republican Romney and the Democratic Legislature, the state has adopted a new law designed to expand healthcare coverage.

Other states have also been active. Maine passed its Dirigo Health Reform Act, aimed at providing universal access to affordable coverage, in 2003; in 2005, Illinois enacted a program to cover everyone under 18; in January, Maryland approved a law requiring any employer with 10,000 or more employees in the state (read: Wal-Mart) to either spend at least 8 percent of payroll on healthcare or contribute the difference to a state healthcare fund.

''States step into the breach when there is federal inaction," notes John McDonough, a former Massachusetts legislator who now serves as executive director of the advocacy group Health Care for All.

Then there's stem cell research. With President Bush's policy restricting federal funding for embryonic stem cell research to stem cell lines already in existence in August 2001, some states are trying to make themselves centers of research.

California has led the way by approving $3 billion in state funding for research over the next decade. On April 10 the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine awarded its first grants, $12 million to train stem cell researchers. (Although opponents are trying to block such expenditures, a California court just handed the institute an important victory.)

New Jersey, Connecticut, Illinois, and Maryland have also moved to provide public dollars for embryonic stem cell research. Still, that patchwork policy is a poor substitute for a nationally funded research effort.

''I think most scientists think it would be preferable to have the research funded at the federal level through an established mechanism like NIH," notes Dr. Stuart Orkin, professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and a member of California's grant-application review board.

With the Bush administration ideologically averse to addressing those issues, state action may have to be the model for the next few years. And certainly that's preferable to inaction.

Yet the initiatives we're witnessing in state capitals should also serve as a stark reminder of the lack of leadership we've seen from Washington.

Fair Use Statement: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.