Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the May 24, 2011, Reno Gazette-Journal.

More than 40 years after Nevada and California governors agreed on the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency compact and President Richard Nixon signed it into law, it may well be time for the two states and Congress to get together and take a new look at how well the often-controversial pact is working to meet its primary goal: the protection of the lake’s world-renowned clarity.

But threats from Nevada to withdraw from the bi-state agency will not get the job done.

To lawmakers’ credit, the Nevada Senate Government Affairs Committee on Monday agreed to eased back on a bill that would have withdrawn the state from the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency immediately.

Instead, the committee approved an amendment that turned the bill into a threat of withdrawal if significant changes aren’t made in the coming years. It set 2013 as the deadline, with a two-year extension possible if the state believes progress is being made.

That threat isn’t likely to play any better in California, or in the halls of Congress, however, where Nevada, with its casinos on the state lines of north and south Tahoe, long was considered the stumbling block to making progress at the lake.

Read the whole story