Change comes in many ways. Sometimes Illinois is way out front, like when we passed our 25% by 2025 renewable energy requirement in 2007, that Congress will hopefully finally echo for the country this year. In this case, we also did our part, but President Obama beat us to it, and we are all grateful and better off for it.While I would have liked to see Illinois act sooner on its own, there's no doubt that the work many people did to support stronger standards at the state level helped build pressure for federal action. Auto companies never would have agreed to this a year ago.
One of Obama's first primary campaign policy speeches was given in Detroit about the need for the industry to change. Seeing him follow through is a major victory and it's one of the reasons I wanted him to become President.
There's more to do though. Time for the next challenge.