U.S., Canadian West set joint carbon-cutting target | Environment | Reuters

U.S., Canadian West set joint carbon-cutting target | Environment | Reuters

"Our collective commitment will build a successful regional system to be linked with other efforts across the nation and eventually the world," California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement.

As far as i can tell, Schwarzenegger (and his staff) have a brilliant approach to the carbon reduction issue: In the face of an administration that is ranging from denial to delusional (that is, the spreading of) in its policies and fancy for industry lobbyists when it comes to issues of "the Environment", The Gov.'s (Arnold, not U.S.) approach is to supersede the federal layer in favor of an inter-regional, trans-national carbon emission reduction initiatives and "treaties".

The challenge for the plan should be to address 1) potential challenge from courts about the authority for states to make these arrangements on their own, and 2) "giving it teeth" so that the agreements are binding in the face of what will surely be challenges to the political will to accomplish the benchmarks in reductions.

The federal state seems to have impaled itself on the entrenched interests of the status-quo. Hopefully these inter-regional networks can form a cohesive, ad-hoc global approach to the carbon issue. Could this be the nascent stages of a new global body? Arnold for President... of the World?