Ronald Brownstein hearts Bill Richardson

At least in this week's column:

Washington, Oregon and Arizona have committed to adopting a California regulation requiring huge reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from passenger vehicles — a standard that would essentially require improved fuel economy — if the rule receives a federal waiver and survives a court challenge from the auto industry. New Mexico will join too if the Environmental Protection Agency and the courts approve the rule, which appears more likely after last week's Supreme Court ruling pressuring the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

In the most dramatic example of regional coordination, California and its neighbors are pursuing a formal agreement on climate change. In February, Schwarzenegger and the Democratic governors of Arizona, New Mexico, Washington and Oregon agreed to devise a regional plan for mandatory reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, most likely through a cap-and-trade system.

That effort, the most sweeping attempt in the U.S. so far to combat the emissions linked to global warming, germinated from discussions that began at last summer's Western Governors' Assn. meeting in Arizona, and blossomed after Richardson and Schwarzenegger exchanged letters in January about their state-level efforts on the problem.

Joking aside, the article details a number of important trends about the political transformation in the West from "sagebrush rebellion" to being at the forefront of "green" energy development. And how Washington--and most of the rest of the US--is way behind the trend on this.