New Hampshire will hold the first primary in 2008, and the state has big plans to take advantage of this powerful position by making climate change a number one priority in its primary -- and for the entire election. It's too early to tell whether it will be successful, but the state has earned quite a lot of media attention in the process.

Here's what NH is up to: Towns across the state (over 180 by the end of May) will be passing (or at least voting on) resolutions that call for a federal program to force emissions cuts and develop sustainable energy technology.

The effort was started by a nonpartisan coalition of business and environmental groups called Carbon Coalition. Of the 221 towns in New Hampshire, the coalition was able to get a climate change resolution on the agendas of over 180 towns.

In the politics of climate change, these bottom-up approaches hold tremendous promise in pushing the feds to act. The innovation and steady drumbeat at the state level has already made a huge difference.