State attorneys general v. everyone: do serious people really disagree about climate change? (Editorial).(Brief Article)

President George W. Bush recently received a letter signed by the state attorneys general (SAGs) of Alaska, California, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont urging him to reconsider his climate change policies. (Before I congratulate these SAGs for sticking their necks out on our behalf, let me note that together they represent 143 of Al Gore's electoral votes and 7 of George W. Bush's total of 271. Yes readers, there are politics going on in our state capitals.)

The SAGs criticize current administration policy for "...failing to mandate reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. To fill this regulatory void, states and others are being forced to rely on their available legal mechanisms." Put bluntly, the SAGs of these 11 states have told the president that they are going their own way on climate change policy. "The resulting combination of state-by-state regulations and litigation," the SAGs say, "will necessarily lessen regulatory certainty and increase the ultimate costs of addressing climate change...." Falling to note that the state-by-state litigation they threaten would be the source of the uncertainty does not deter the SAGs from moving on "...to protect our citizens and our economy."

These chief legal officers (SAGs) cum economists urge the president to adopt a market-based program that would cap greenhouse gases.

At about the same time, the Governors of the 50 states through the non-partisan National Governors Association released a more nuanced climate-change position, which begins:

"In recent years, there has been strong evidence that the composition of the earth's atmosphere has been changing and that human activities are contributing to such change. There is significant scientific uncertainty as to the degree to which such changes may enhance the natural greenhouse effect. Any climate change induced by the buildup of greenhouse gases will be difficult to reverse because of the long atmospheric lifetimes of some greenhouse gases and the inertia of the global climate system.

"Climate change is a long-term issue requiring global action. Although recognizing the unresolved uncertainties of science, many nations have committed to cost-effective actions to mitigate the possible impacts of global climate change....."

Later, the governors write: