California Gov. Gray Davis' signature on legislation that would bring far more power to the state's legendary farmworker union has capped and brought into focus a stunning year of progressive accomplishment in the Golden State. Together, a very liberal Legislature and a very calculating governor have enacted the most extensive renewable energy requirement in the country, the first law to fight global warming, the first law authorizing state funds for stem-cell research on fetal and embryonic tissue and the first comprehensive paid family-leave program. But nothing is more dramatic than the first major legislation in a quarter-century helping the farmworkers, who are not covered by national labor law.

After two decades of drift and a year of crisis, the
Democrats have finally proposed a serious, future-oriented energy policy. The
Energy Policy Act of 2002 (Senate bill S1766), introduced by Senate Energy
Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, does not come a moment too soon:
The lack of a coherent Democratic energy doctrine has played to the benefit of a
particularly oil-intent Republican White House. Notably, House Democrats helped
George W. Bush and Dick Cheney beat back amendments on auto fuel efficiency and
Alaskan oil drilling last summer. Of the two parties' long-term energy
strategies, Bill Wicker, communications director for the Senate Energy Committee,