What's next on climate change?

Washington was among the first states to start planning for how to tackle the greenhouse gas pollution that contributes to global warming. When President Obama was elected, the spotlight turned to Washington D.C., where he pledged to enact national climate change legislation. Now that Congress has failed to pass a climate bill, attention is shifting back to Washington and other West Coast states. So, what happens now on climate change in the Northwest?

Last summer, the effort to get a federal climate law seemed to be on track. The House of Representatives had passed the Waxman-Markey bill and the Senate was slated to take up a version of its own. A year later, the Senate bill is dead, at least for now. K.C. Golden - with Climate Solutions, a Seattle-based environmental group -- says he's not really disappointed

"We're well past disappointed at this point in the game," he says. "Let's go with furious."

Golden's group has been at the forefront of efforts to address global warming and shift away from fossil fuels. He says the public is way out in front of lawmakers on this.

"People want solutions," he says. "People want to move forward. People don't want to see our governments stuck in partisan gridlock. People don't want to see our governments owned by fossil fuel interests. People believe in and are hungry to participate in building a clean energy economy."

With federal action stalled, state and regional efforts are coming back into the limelight. Last week, the Western Climate Initiative outlined its program to cut greenhouse gases and grow a clean energy economy. The group is made up of Washington, Oregon, California, British Columbia and seven other states and Canadian provinces.

But so far, only California and New Mexico have committed to moving forward with the plan. It calls for a region-wide carbon cap and trade system, increased energy efficiency, reduced vehicle emissions and boosting green jobs.

Keith Phillips is Governor Gregoire's point man on energy and climate policy. He says the governor's not yet ready to give up on Congress.

"But the fact that they have not acted just, I think, increases the importance if not the urgency of the state deciding what else it can do to capture as much of the opportunity as we can of both the environmental obligations as well as the economic upside of a clean energy economy."

Phillips points to actions such as the governor's executive order that directs the Department of Ecology to develop ways for industry to cut greenhouse gas emissions. She's also moving forward with a program to boost energy efficiency in schools and other public buildings.

As to whether the governor will try again to push a cap and trade bill through the legislature to implement the Western Climate Initiative, Phillips says there's been no decision yet. But, he says

"It probably wouldn't be the same thing. It would be the things that we think will get us as far down the road as we can and that might have some chance of making it through the legislature."

Phillips says one factor will be what the political landscape looks like in Olympia after the November elections.

K.C. Golden thinks the elections will be a referendum on what kind of energy future people in the west want.

"It's a contest between those that believe that holding fast to fossil fuel dependence as usual is what we need to do in the midst of an economic crisis," he says, "and on the other hand, those who believe we need to build new engines for prosperity."

A proposition to repeal California's cap and trade law is on the ballot, and Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman says that if elected, she'll delay the California program by at least a year. If the Western Climate Initiative's 800-pound gorilla - with the world's 8th largest economy - backs off from climate action, that would be a serious blow to the regional plan.

That could leave Washington and other states to take whatever actions they can to cut greenhouse gases on their own.

Listen to the broadcast on KPLU - NPR