Advice on Warming: Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way

It was a legal knockout. Last week the U.S. Supreme Court told President Bush that he can no longer hide behind the federal Clean Air Act in pleading that he is powerless to fight global warming. The Court rebuked the President and sided with a dozen states that had sued the federal government for the right to slow the pollution that is warming the earth.

The lawyers may still be sorting through the historic case’s legal implications, but the political message on global warming is loud and clear: To steal a line from the great provocateur Thomas Paine, it is time for Washington to lead, follow or get out of the way.

For almost two decades Washington has created noise but no action. Our leaders have squabbled over settled science, passed the buck to the United Nations, pointed fingers at other countries, voted on resolutions that bring us no resolution, and bickered over which committee has the authority to do something -- or in this case, which committee has the authority to do nothing.

Well, nature abhors a vacuum, and Washington has been a leadership vacuum. So in stepped the rest of America. Mayors, governors and business executives decided they would lead where Washington wasn’t.

Nineteen states now have or are building comprehensive climate action plans. Nearly as many are participating in regional greenhouse gas trading programs. A dozen states have joined California’s clean car rule that will slash carbon emission from vehicles by 2014. Dozens of states have goals for energy efficiency and renewable energy production, two crucial components of a successful greenhouse gas reduction strategy.

And here in South Carolina, Governor Mark Sanford is backing an initiative to find the ways to cut emissions and spur economic development. To do nothing, he warns, is to face a future of more severe storms, flooding, sea level rise, agricultural disruption and to lose the wonderful natural heritage of South Carolina. We act, he says, because, “The American way is to lead, and to lead in looking for solutions.”

With so many state leaders heeding the call, by the time a new president takes office in 2009, a majority of Americans may well live in states with a meaningful plan to slow global warming.

None of this has been or will be easy. Not surprisingly, when the states started to act we learned the one thing that Washington can do well is get in the way. After my former boss, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, backed a plan to reduce automobile pollution and help preserve such essential natural gifts as the snow pack that provides millions of Californians fresh water, the Bush Administration opposed us in court.

When Massachusetts and a dozen other states wanted to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the Bush Administration took the fight all the way to highest court in the land, only to lose.

Is it hopeless in Washington? No. Almost all of the presidential contenders from both parties are backing policies to curb pollution, whether it is a national cap on emissions or more efficient cars and SUVs.

This is critically important, because we will ultimately need Washington to build and manage a sound national and international effort based on market principles -- for the good of the economy and the environment.

That of course makes South Carolina a pivotal player in deciding what will happen next. So when all those presidential wannabes come through your cities and towns over the next two years, please remind them that it’s time to lead, follow or get out of the way.