"Now that 2010 has gone down as one of history's hottest years, many states are choosing not to wait for Congress to tackle climate change and are taking their own steps to slash greenhouse gas emissions.

States are increasingly adopt-ing stricter, energy-saving building codes, spending more money (partly federal) on energy efficiency and prodding big polluters to cut heat-trapping emissions."

Wendy Koch reports for USA TODAY January 23, 2011. [2]