[Mb-civic] Look to states for leadership - Scot Lehigh - Boston Globe

[William Swiggard]

  Look to states for leadership

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

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.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/04/25/look_to_states_for_leadership/
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