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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...
...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...
...Relations between Karzai and his Western backers deteriorated significantly over the past couple of years, particularly after the onset of the Obama Administration. Instead of stinging Karzai into cleaning up his act, public criticism from Washington enabled him to set himself up as a leader at odds with the U.S., boosting his support in some sections of the population. He sought to strengthen his position through alliances with regional power brokers, including warlords accused of major human-rights abuses and known drug traffickers - people he will be beholden to as he enters a second term...
...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...