States and local governments are not being encouraged to work on global warming in a serious way by either the federal government or environmental groups. The Knowlenberg process has actually prevented the federal government from attempting to unleash the power of states and local governments to work on this problem. The EPA program on states and local government, although quite worthwhile, is still much of a fringe federal environmental program that can t seriously promote state and local government adoption of climate change as a goal. States and local governments have legal authority over many activities that are responsible for GHG emissions Land use-exclusively a state issue, urban sprawl is a currently a hot issue. Electric power sector is largely regulated at state level, states are currently deciding such matters as the rules by which deregulation will take place.
States regulate state forests and certain aspects of agricultural policy.
States regulate solid waste and therefore control methane emissions from land fills. Despite little serious encouragement, some states and a few local governments have begun to consider global warming and many lessons can be learned from what has been done so far. EPA has a list of the 20 states that have developed mitigation strategies. Many of the state and local government programs show greenhouse reductions while saving money. Not only has the federal government failed to harness the potential of states and local governments on climate change, it also has failed, perhaps to an even greater extent, to encourage the states and local governments to seriously consider sustainable development as a goal.