All States Need to Embrace Bipartisan Climate Bill

Next week, Senators John Kerry, Lindsey Graham, and Joe Lieberman will release their much-anticipated proposal for comprehensive climate and energy legislation — the best remaining shot at forging a bipartisan consensus on this issue in 2010. Their proposal has many strengths — and as an environmental economist who has worked on this issue for two decades, I hope it succeeds. But there’s a danger that officials from some states, including Massachusetts, could undermine the effectiveness of a federal bill. While states have played an important role in pushing Congress to act, the federal initiative now has to take precedence over state regulations.