Have you ever had a horrible boss? Someone so completely incompetent yet oblivious that you had no choice but to pull out into the passing lane and scoot right around his or her stalled psyche sitting there broken down on the road to success? What I’m talking about here is a realization that if you want to keep the organization afloat and – more importantly –feel at least a modicum of satisfaction about a job well done, sometimes you have to look past the stifling short-sightedness of your superior (?) and take matters into your own hands.

That, it seems, is just what some Governors are starting to do when it comes to US energy policy. And I say … thank God. Unwilling to wait any longer for this administration to pull its head out of the sand, state leaders appear to be taking charge of the situation.

Earlier this week, for example, Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski made a surprise appearance at the HydroVision Conference in Portland to voice his support for continued development of alternative energy solutions. When asked his opinion about the Bush administration’s energy policies, he carefully remained non-partisan. But, he added (and I’m paraphrasing here), this is a situation where state government needs to take the lead and push policy up, rather than wait for the Feds to push it down.

The next day, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger followed suit by signing an agreement to work with the United Kingdom to combat global warming. Some have called the agreement “largely symbolic.” I say – to some extent – that’s precisely the point.

It’s the point because, while there’s certainly much work to do to ensure this agreement goes beyond political rhetoric, California’s governor has circumvented President Bush and reached straight across the pond to shake hands with Bush’s staunchest ally, Tony Blair.

Think about that for a second. We’re not talking fringe players here. We’re talking about a high-profile Republican Governor distancing himself from an environmentally disastrous Republican administration by doing what most of the world has been waiting for the US to do for oh, say, six years: Acknowledge greenhouse gas emissions are a global problem requiring international dialog and teamwork. And we’re talking about Blair -- the one world leader who’s remained more-or-less in lockstep with Bush on Iraq -- breaking ranks on the environment to seek other avenues into US energy policy.

This is a good thing. Too bad it took Bush thoroughly botching things up before other leaders became emboldened enough to take charge of this situation. But hey – at this point, we’ll take it.