Word: washingtonization
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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This is the second time Schwarzenegger has held a global warming conference focused on what state and local governments can do about climate change, and it couldn't come at a more appropriate time. While Washington under President George W. Bush all but ignored climate change, California - with the Republican Schwarzenegger sometimes leading and sometimes following - embarked on its own green path, passing a landmark carbon-emissions cap for the state in 2006 and aggressively promoting renewable energy. Today, California's clean-tech sector is a rare bright spot in a state that is struggling with economic problems. California...
...small part to prodding by California and other states with progressive governors, attitudes have changed in Washington. But Congress continues to dither over cap and trade, and California is moving ahead. On Sept. 15, Schwarzenegger signed an executive order requiring that the state get 33% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020 - well above the 15% national standard that current climate bills circulating in Congress would require. California is not alone: more than half the states in the U.S. have similar renewable energy standards, and states in the West and the Northeast have begun to form regional carbon...
...governors who have gathered in Los Angeles are pushing from the bottom up, demonstrating that there is political will to deal with climate change. Ultimately, of course, it will be the national governments in Washington, London and Beijing, among other places, that will take part in the upcoming U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen and shape how the world takes on global warming. But the vast majority of that response - whether it means shoring up cities for sea level rise or tightening green building codes - will need to be carried out at the state and city level, the governors...
...Even now, Nadery claims, Washington has more leverage than it knows. For example, many of the salaries of Karzai's coterie of close advisers are paid by the U.S. "If you have a clear demonstration that resources would be cut off from different operations in the [presidential] palace, that kind of pressure would have an impact," he suggests...
...Still, the U.S. and NATO have little choice but to work with the leader they have, even if he's not the leader they wish they had. Karzai believed that Washington was trying to get rid of him ahead of the election, and he'll see his victory as a triumph also over those in Western capitals who had sought his ouster. Having secured another term of office, and with the West desperate to save its mission in Afghanistan from collapse, Karzai has the upper hand - and that will make it all the more difficult to cajole him into fighting...