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Petrodollar rich foreign governments buy their way into US board rooms - click the link to watch the video

Some of the world's wealthiest are going green, spending their own greenbacks to protect the environment and fight global warming. In honor of the 37th annual Earth Day this Sunday, we are highlighting our picks for the 11 greenest billionaires. These moguls have made significant commitments to the environment, whether through investment in technology, commitment to earth-friendly living or simply by raising the world's environmental awareness. Among the green billionaires are high-profile folks like Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT) co-founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Gates' investment firm invested $84 million in California's Pacific Ethanol (nasdaq: PEIX), which makes ethanol from corn;...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- In a sign of increasing investor concern about global warming, two big insurers agreed to disclose information about the risks they face from climate change and how they'll try to combat those risks, mutual fund family Calvert and investors' coalition Ceres said Tuesday.

SACRAMENTO – In Michigan, where automakers still reign, the Rev. Charles Morris cites Scripture and California policy as he campaigns for curbs on tailpipe and smokestack emissions linked to disruptions in global weather patterns that can threaten water, power and food supplies. “California is the leader of the pack,” says the Catholic priest who tends a parish in Wyandotte, just outside Dearborn. “They put in emission reductions. They put in reformulated gas,” Morris said. “The sky didn't fall. The sun still shines. It belies the myths put out there.” Religious leaders such as Morris – joining a growing number of...

SACRAMENTO--Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez introduced legislation Monday to limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, oil refineries and other industrial sources, a step he said would lead the nation in combating global warming while spurring the state's economy. "(The bill) sends a loud and clear message to ... innovators and entrepreneurs here and abroad to develop and bring clean technologies into the California marketplace," the Los Angeles Democrat said. Nunez announced the legislation on the same day Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration released a report calling for development of economic incentives that could include emission caps to cut greenhouse gases, chiefly...

Sacramento -- A giant bond proposal being weighed by state lawmakers has far more in it than billions of dollars to build schools and highways and strengthen California's levees. Restoration of the Salton Sea, retrofitting diesel school buses, acquiring land and creating urban parks are a few examples of spending included in the most recent version of the bond, which would go before voters in June if lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger can work out a deal in the next couple of days. "Protection of environmental resources is as much of a long-term investment in California's future as is the...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A California assemblywoman who suspects pollution contributed to the cancer she was diagnosed with last year announced plans Wednesday to seek an air cleanup bond that could cost the state between $2 billion and $5 billion dollars. The announcement by Assemblywoman Jenny Oropeza, D-Long Beach, followed a hearing in which lawmakers heard nearly three hours of testimony linking air pollution from California's ports, trucks and other shipping sources to deaths, childhood illnesses and even poor fetal development. The state Air Resources Board released a study earlier this month that found diesel emissions from the Los Angeles...

In a burst of green penmanship, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed 29 environmental bills into law Thursday on a wide range of issues. One will require all new cars for sale in California starting in 2009 to display stickers explaining how many tons of global warming-causing gases they emit. Another, from a Palo Alto lawmaker, bans sewage dumping and garbage burning from commercial ships within three miles of the coast. Others will require a study of the aging levee system in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, prohibit the use of experimental pesticides around schools, phase out mercury in industrial switches and...

Governor Schwarzenegger announced today that he has signed legislation that will help protect California's environment. The new laws will help reduce air pollution, clean up contaminated property caused by methamphetamine labs, encourage recycling, and protect pristine wilderness. "We must be diligent in our efforts to keep California at the forefront of environmental protection and resource efficiency, improving our surroundings and making our state a better place to live, visit and employ people," said Governor Schwarzenegger. "Protecting our environment and preserving California's natural beauty for future generations is a top priority for my administration." Governor Schwarzenegger signed a bill that will...

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who enthused activists and unnerved business leaders with many of his early appointments to top environmental slots, is increasingly favoring industry officials for key jobs protecting California's forests, air and water. Schwarzenegger's effort to be a green Republican has been one of the principal ways the governor has depicted himself as being above Sacramento's traditional partisan divides. But in a reversal from the beginning of his tenure, it is now environmentalists who are objecting that Schwarzenegger has bent too far to one side. --snip-- "We have seen a change in the wrong direction," said Bill...