We heard the bad news today on Bolton’s impact on the UN. Looks like at least some of these United of States may pick up the slack when it comes to Federal inaction and creation of obstacles in fighting global warming.
This is from the Guardian, reposted on Common Dreams.org:

America’s north-eastern states are on the brink of a declaration of environmental independence with the introduction of mandatory controls on greenhouse gas emissions of the kind rejected by the Bush administration.
In the first regional agreement of its kind in the US, nine states are expected to announce a plan next month to freeze carbon dioxide emissions from big power stations by 2009 and then reduce them by 10% by 2020.

The region stretches from New Jersey to Maine and generates roughly the same volume of emissions as Germany.

Pennsylvania and Maryland have signed on as observers to the regional initiative and are considering joining it at a later date.

On the other side of the continent, California, Oregon, Washington, New Mexico and Arizona are exploring similar agreements, representing a clear break between state governments and Washington over global warming.

This is exactly what it is going to take to fight the Bush administration’s efforts to block progress on global warming: local and statewide initiatives. If you can’t go through them, go around them.