Just when you though you had seen everything Arnold is up to some good for a change. This guy is so hard to read, he goes left when you think he is gonna go right, zig’s when you think he is gonna zag. Today he signed into law the nations strictest global warming reduction laws. Some might think he was forced to do so because of his dismal ratings…but the point it it got done. And as we all know where California goes, so goes the rest of the nation. (via)
SAN FRANCISCO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday signed into law the nation’s strictest greenhouse-gas emission cuts, aiming to reduce the global-warming pollution by a quarter by 2020.
AB 32’s signing marks the start of “a bold new era of environmental protection here in California that will change the course of history,” the governor told politicians, business leaders and environmental advocates at the signing ceremony under leaden skies on Treasure Island’s breezy shoreline. “This is something we owe our children and that we owe our grandchildren.”
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, linked live via satellite, said Schwarzenegger and lawmakers have shown “brilliant leadership that will excite and inspire a lot of people worldwide.”
“You guys have set yourself a really bold target but I think that’s right, that’s important,” Blair said, adding that Great Britain set and met its emissions-reduction standards while growing its economy. He said he hopes California’s action will prod the United States, China, India and other nations to join the international community for a more binding global pact after the Kyoto Protocols expire in 2012.
AB 32 requires the California Air Resources Board to develop and implement regulations and market mechanisms to cut the state’s greenhouse gas emissions to 1990’s levels by 2020 — a 25 percent cut — and then 80 percent more by 2050. Mandatory caps will begin in 2012 for significant sources and then ratchet down to meet the 2020 goal.
New York Gov. George Pataki was at the signing ceremony, and said that although New York and California are a continent apart, “on issues such as this we share a common vision.” New York was the launching pad for a seven-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative compact signed earlier this year which created a cap-and-trade system limiting power plants’ carbon dioxide emissions.
“We cannot wait and follow others — we have to lead ourselves,” Pataki said, adding more must be done to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil exported by “unfriendly regimes like Hugo Chavez” of Venezuela.
Pataki’s words seemed to underscore the event’s political context: self-styled moderate Republican governors breaking from the Bush administration’s inaction to embrace an environmental issue near and dear to many Democrats’ and independents’ hearts.
Democratic gubernatorial contender Phil Angelides and some environmental activists have noted that Schwarzenegger tried to gut this bill by putting a board of his own political appointees in charge of its enforcement and granting that panel power to ease the deadlines if compliance would be “detrimental to the California economy.”
Schwarzenegger was “dragged kicking and screaming” to this agreement, Angelides said last week in San Francisco, and is signing it only as an effort to “greenwash” his record as he seeks re-election. On Wednesday, protesters sat atop a row of Hummer vehicles near the signing site, bearing signs that read, “Gas Guzzlers for Arnold.”
But Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, beamed as he shook the governor’s hand Wednesday and thanked him “for demonstrating leadership, for demonstrating courage.” Nunez co-authored AB 32 with Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills.