This post has been added to the… California In Transition- Must read Threads! 
Want on our daily or major news ping lists? Freepmail DoctorZin
Posted on 11/15/2003 9:38:02 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Governor elect Arnold Schwarzenegger's choice to head California's environmental protection agency has slammed the Bush administration for alleged failure to curb greenhouse gasses or prevent the kind of forest fires that have been ravaging southern California and much of the West. Blithely ignoring the fact that experts have laid the blame for the uncontrolled blazes at the feet of environmentalists who have prevented the U.S. Forest Service from taking effective fire prevention measures such as clearing out dead trees and dry underbrush from forests, Terry Tamminen, executive director of Environment Now, criticized President Bush's so-called Healthy Forests Initiative which he said fails to remove underbrush in the residential and wildlands interface where fires he claims cause the most damage. According to the San Francisco Chronicle in his first public statement since being appointed Tamminen, who calls himself a "tree hugger" also attacked the administration for failing to restrict so-called greenhouse gasses which the environmental left insists cause global warming - a charge the overwhelming majority of the world's climate experts deny. Claiming that an administration policy on Carbon Dioxide "undermines our ability to control greenhouse gases,'' referring to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's decision earlier this year not to regulate carbon dioxide, Tamminen told a conference of the Bay Planning Coalition in Oakland, California "We can't just stick our head in the sand and pretend it doesn't exist,'' The Chronicle says that Tamminen's comments "suggest that the Schwarzenegger administration could challenge several Bush administration environmental policies, including the EPA's ruling that the federal Clean Air Act doesn't apply to carbon dioxide, which the paper insists "is the main culprit in global warming." But that may not prove to be the case. Tamminen himself said that. "The governor listens to a lot of people, reads a lot of material and decides for himself.'' As for future conflicts with the Bush administration when asked whether holding these views might cause conflict with the administration, Tamminen said, "If we have differences of opinion with President Bush, we have to voice that. It's not about partisan politics, it's about the environment.'' This seems to be at odds with Schwarzenegger’s goal of seeking financial aid from the Bush administration which is not likely to view attacks from members of the Schwarzenegger administration with much sympathy or fuel a desire to cough up federal funds to the state. The Chronicle reported that Tamminen met Schwarzenegger through Robert Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer in Washington D.C., who runs the national WaterKeeper Alliance, a radical environmental group which the Consumer Federation calls a "thin political cover for the real coalition ... one of big-money trial lawyers (many of them still counting their tobacco-settlement fees) who see billion-dollar payouts where most consumers see ribs, ham, and bacon.” According to the Federation, the Alliance has declared war on the pork industry.
He pledged to build a series of electric car re-fueling stations every twenty miles -- and amazingly said almost all the funding for this would come from the federal government.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a radical environmentalist and Schwarzenegger's cousin by marriage, is his environmental advisor. Kennedy called Al Gore our last hope in 2000.
'Nuff said. Might as well ask a skinhead to say something positive about Joe Lieberman.
"Moon Found Devoid of Life -- Environmentalists and Democrats Demand Explanation from Bush"
I hate to overuse it but I can only quote the great Bryant Gumble here, "What a f.....g idiot."
Then he forgets that his state lost 750 million acres to fire becuase the state has a law against cutting / removing dead underbrush and dead dried out trees..
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.