Posted on 07/05/2007 12:01:32 PM PDT by calcowgirl
About six weeks ago, I published a column ["Arnold can't give us 'green' cement," also at FR] in a number of newspapers warning that the governor’s dueling promises to radically reduce carbon dioxide emissions while delivering a new era of public works comprised a public policy charade of breathtaking mendacity. Highways, dams and aqueducts require heavy construction equipment and prodigious amounts of concrete that in turn produce enormous amounts of carbon dioxide. I wrote:
“The governor is now on the horns of a dilemma of his own making. He must either confront the fact that AB 32 was an intellectually dishonest stunt or that his $40 billion of infrastructure bonds were a fraud. There is no third option.”
Last week, Gov. Schwarzenegger fired Dr. Robert Sawyer, his own appointee as chairman of the California Air Resources Board. The CARB’s longtime executive director, Catherine Witherspoon, resigned in protest yesterday. And they’re not going quietly into that good night.
CARB is the agency principally responsible for implementing the governor’s AB 32, and Sawyer and Witherspoon were taking that mandate seriously. And why shouldn’t they? According to the governor, this is the most important legislation of the century and the very survival of Planet Earth hangs in the balance.
But when Sawyer and Witherspoon actually tried to begin implementing AB 32 by imposing severe limitations on diesel construction equipment, the governor’s office bluntly warned them to back off, including a candid phone message that Sawyer saved. The state’s contractors have plainly warned the governor that enforcement of AB 32 would shut down most of their equipment.
Having spun his way into this fix, the governor couldn’t stop himself. The official reason he gave for firing Sawyer was that he just hadn’t been environmentally tough enough. Both Sawyer and Witherspoon have impeccable environmental credentials dating back to the days when the “Green Governor” was still hanging out at Gold’s Gym and his claim must be particularly galling to them and their supporters.
I think this controversy is going to continue for some time. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez has scheduled public hearings in the Assembly starting on Friday, giving Sawyer, Witherspoon and the entire green establishment a high-visibility forum to air their grievances.
Don’t expect many Republicans to rise to the governor’s defense. Just three months ago during his East Coast environmental tour, he called any opponents of AB 32 “fanatics” and promised their political extinction.
The Greeks called it “hubris,” and in their classic tragedies it was the root cause of the fall of many a prince.
Mr. McClintock is an expert on matters of the State budget and fiscal discipline. He is a Senator in the California State Legislature and ran for Governor in the 2003 recall election. His valuable website is found at carepublic.com [McClintock index]
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Please freepmail me if you want on or off this list
Our Governor has been so wrong on so many issues since his re-election his nick name “Arnold the fool” only gets continued due to this own actions.
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2670604,00.html
Germany Wants Emissions Trading Agreement With US States
Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier will reportedly travel to California in August to discuss a trans-Atlantic emissions trading scheme with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The hope is to have agreements in place by 2012, according to a strategy paper from Germany’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Europe must together with the US make progress on the goal of having a meaningful climate policy,” according to the policy paper quoted in the Financial Times Deutschland newspaper Thursday.
(snip)
The US doesn’t have any organized emissions trading systems. In recent years, plans for two regional systems have emerged.
Nine states in the Northeast, including New York and New Jersey will set caps and trade carbon dioxide emissions starting in 2009.
California, the most populous US state, is leading the Western Region Climate Action Initiative. It would create a carbon trading market whereby polluters can buy carbon credits from greener companies.
Several US states have expressed interest in working with the EU.
This foreign crapweasel is way beyond his expiration date...
fyi
The whole “cap and trade” system benefits those who are unproductive. It’s a big fake cash cow for the people that are managing the system. It essentially creates a business out of nowhere and those costs are then pushed down onto consumer.
http://www.mercurynews.com/politics/ci_6296292
Governor’s pick for air board lauded
ENVIRONMENTALISTS LOOKING FOR ACTION ON EMISSIONS LAW
SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday named a staunch environmentalist with deep Democratic ties to take the helm of the state’s air quality enforcement agency, perhaps dulling criticism that he was stalling implementation of California’s landmark global warming legislation as a way to appease the business community.
His selection of environmental lawyer Mary Nichols, a former appointee of two former Democratic governors and President Clinton, won wide praise from business and environmental groups alike for her even-handed approach to air quality.
Schwarzenegger called Nichols a “real powerhouse” player in the environmental movement who will bring credibility to his plan to reduce emissions through a mixture of air quality standards and market-based incentives.
Nichols served as the secretary of the California Resources Agency from 1999 to 2003 under Gov. Gray Davis. Before that, she served as assistant administrator for air and radiation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under Clinton.
As an environmental lawyer for the Center for Law in the Public Interest, she initiated some of the first test cases under the federal Clean Air Act and the state’s air quality laws. She worked as a senior staff attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council and headed the Environment Now Foundation.
Ann Notthoff, the California advocacy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, called her an “enforcer and advocate for a healthy environment and public health” who knows the Air Resources Board well and “is committed to its science-based independence. It would be hard to find a stronger chair of the board.”
Schwarzenegger has stated he wants AB 32 to feature a cap-and-trade policy in which companies that don’t meet air quality standards are able to purchase permits from those who do. Democrats say the law requires the state to take “early action” measures before cap-and-trade options are offered to businesses.
He’s turning into a walking cropcircle.
It will definitely destroy any business that actually tries to produce something of substance in California.
But I agree—cap-and-trade is a “business” created from nothing. It’s not a surprise to find Michael Milken and his cronies behind it’s creation.
Arnold is a “big picture guy.” He has a sharp nose for corruption posing as goodness
He’s looking to the carbon credit trading fraud scheme, not shutting down clunky machinery.
It’s about the carbon credit trading...
It’s about the carbon credit trading...
Yep!
BTTT
Last time I checked, the Constitution doesn't allow the States to negotiate with foreign powers.
Maybe Arnold didn't learn about that in his grade school in Austria.
His leftist UN-type attorneys seem to have found a way around that.
He’s already entered into several agreements.
Shermy, do you remember which ones? Blair, Australia, Canada?
I haven’t been keeping a list.
Never mind, I found it...
http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/177875.html
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has boosted his environmental profile by signing global warming agreements with states and foreign governments, most recently one this month with the Australian state of Victoria.
(snip)
The five deals signed by Schwarzenegger range from a pact with 10 Northeast states to coordinate a trading system to this month’s deal with Victoria, an agreement to share environmental research and align carbon-trading programs. The governor also has penned deals with Manitoba, the United Kingdom and four other Western states along similar lines.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1828943/posts
[Victorian Premier] Bracks and Schwarzenegger hand in hand on climate (sign new agreement)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1753616/posts
California signs carbon trading deal with Manitoba
Mr. McClintock should be Gov.
Tom McClintock is a good man.
Not another recall, but let’s send him on his way next election. Isn’t it in 2008?
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