I’m a few days late on this one, although the green blogosphere in general has been quiet on this news (thank you Grist, Sightline Institute, and It’s Getting Hot in Here!): on Thursday in Milwaukee, governors from nine Midwestern states and the Canadian province of Manitoba signed the Midwest Regional Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord. Based on similar agreements in the Northeast and West Coast, the accord commits seven of the signatories to creating a regional cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases by 2010 (Ohio, Indiana, and South Dakota signed on as observers); it does not yet establish a reduction goal (as Grist notes).

While this is accord is only a first step, there’s a lot to celebrate here. Politically, the Midwest is pretty purple: cities tend to be bright blue, while rural areas are fiery red. Culturally, it’s fairly conservative overall: the “Heartland” has meanings beyond geographical location. If governors from both political parties (and the event surrounding the signing was co-hosted by Wisconsin’s Democratic governor Jim Doyle, and Minnesota’s Republican governor Tim Pawlenty) are willing to spend political capital in such a manner, that’s a strong sign that the polls aren’t wrong: the desire to address climate change has reached the mainstream.

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