States have set the pace over the past decade as the nation’s leaders in implementing climate change policy, but much of their work could be on the line this fall.

[Democratic Attorney General Jerry Brown and Republican Meg Whitman are vying for the Governor’s seat in California. Nineteen gubernatorial races involve states that participate in the regional climate initiatives that have emerged as important alternatives to federal policy, given Congress’s failure to pass a cap-and-trade system to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. ]Democratic Attorney General Jerry Brown and Republican Meg Whitman are vying for the Governor’s seat in California. Nineteen gubernatorial races involve states that participate in the regional climate initiatives that have emerged as important alternatives to federal policy, given Congress’s failure to pass a cap-and-trade system to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Nineteen gubernatorial races involve states that participate in the regional climate initiatives that have emerged as important alternatives to federal policy, given Congress’s failure to pass a cap-and-trade system to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

Nowhere is the battle more intense than in California, where Democratic Attorney General Jerry Brown and Republican Meg Whitman are at odds over the state’s landmark law to reduce heat-trapping emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

Whitman favors a one-year suspension of the law, known as AB 32, to give the state’s economy time to recover from the recession. The former eBay chief executive said last fall that the climate law, which Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed in 2006, “may have been well-intentioned, but it is wrong for these challenging times.”

Brown’s campaign has seized on Whitman’s rightward shift during her heated GOP primary, which waded into doubts on the science of global warming. And his campaign said Whitman is waffling when it comes to her views on a separate ballot initiative – funded by out-of-state oil company interests – that would halt AB 32 unless there’s a dramatic economic turnaround.

“We’re opposed to climate change, and Meg Whitman isn’t sure it’s real,” said Brown spokesman Sterling Clifford. “That’s the critical distinction on that issue.”

Given California’s long-standing leadership role on environmental issues, the gubernatorial and ballot initiative races could have major repercussions beyond the state’s borders.

“A loss would be devastating in so many ways,” said state Sen. Fran Pavley, a Los Angeles-area Democrat and a lead co-author of the climate law. The defeat of AB 32 would prompt businesses to pass on spending billions of dollars for a variety of low-carbon technologies, she said.

Industry interests said the California election is an important signal of the prospects for climate policies that are not compatible with the current economy.

“It’s a sign of the times,” said Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute. “Who would have predicted two or three years ago that the repeal of AB 32 would have even been an issue in California? But today, it is.”

Sources tracking state climate policies insist the candidates’ positions may not be reflective of the work they would do if elected.