Free Republic

Noted scientist, Arnold Schwarzenegger, cast his eye over the political landscape and wagged his finger at the Bush administration. Schwarzenegger, governor of California, said the decision to delay a decision on regulations affecting greenhouse gases showed it did not believe in global warming. The Bush Administration's refusal to guzzle some of Arnold's global warming Kool-Aid upset the Left Coast governor. The Last Action Hero decided a lecture was the solution. Schwartzenegger might not have realized he was also lecturing a majority of Americans for being nonbelievers. According to Pew Research Center: Americans generally agree that the earth is getting warmer,...

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he'd say yes if Barack Obama is elected president and offers him a position in his administration. "I'm always ready to help in any way I can the United States," Schwarzenegger said Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "Because as you know, I've committed myself to be a public servant, because this country has given me everything. And so this is my time now." Schwarzenegger has endorsed fellow Republican John McCain for president, but he said he'd "take [Obama's] call now and I'd take his call when he's president, anytime. Remember, no matter who is president,...

Schwarzenegger: I'd be Obama energy czar By MIKE ALLEN | 7/13/08 10:23 AM EST California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in an interview aired Sunday that he would be open to the idea of serving as energy czar in a Barack Obama administration. Regardless of whether he takes that particular job, Schwarzenegger, a Republican, added on ABC’s “This Week” that he’s now committed to continuing public service even after he leaves Sacramento. Schwarzenegger endorsed John McCain at the end of January, and McCain has appeared with “the Governator” to praise his efforts to deal with climate change. A Schwarzenegger appointment would...

Last March, we received word that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was offsetting his jet travel demands by purchasing green credits. The cost of Schwarzenegger’s travel was to be “annually invested” in sustainable forest management projects. At that time, it was reported that the Governor was flying twice-weekly from his office in Sacramento, CA to his mansion in Brentwood, CA. We firmly believed then that the offsetting was, at best, a band-aid for a habit that in one hour would do more damage to the environment than a small car could inflict over the course of one year. Now, the LA Times...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Sunday the Bush administration did not believe it should do anything about global warming and that any last-minute action before leaving office would be "bogus." Schwarzenegger, a Republican whose state has pushed unsuccessfully for federal permission to limit greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, said on ABC's "This Week" that any move at this point against climate change would lack sincerity. "If they would have done something this year, I would have thought it was bogus anyway," he said. "You don't really have an effect by doing something six months before you...

ABC News' Mary Bruce Reports: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, R-Calif., spoke out against President Bush this morning attacking his administration for its failure to counter global warming emissions. "This administration did not believe in global warming," Schwarzenegger told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview that will air Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "They just didn't believe in it or they didn't believe that they should do anything about it, since China is not doing anything about it and since India is not willing to do the same thing, so why should we do the same thing?" Schwarzenegger said. "We...

OAKLAND, Calif. -- California is making it mandatory for cars to be labeled with global warming scores, figures that take into account emissions from vehicle use and fuel production.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has risked accusations of green hypocrisy by driving around in a gas-guzzling Dodge Challenger Coupe. The Hollywood star-turned Californian governor has built a reputation as a leading green campaigner and last Friday told a climate-change meeting in Florida: "America is so addicted to oil it will take us years to wean ourselves from it, and to look for new ways to feed our addiction is not the answer." In an interview last year, the governor spoke of his wish to create "a whole new industry of clean cars and clean engines and components to build those engines." To...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, appearing in a taped interview Sunday on "Meet the Press," defended GOP presidential candidate John McCain as "the real deal on the environment". "I'm very proud of him. I'm 100 percent behind him," he told Tom Brokaw. Schwarzenegger acknowledged that he doesn't support everything McCain has proposed, just as he isn't always in accord with his wife, Maria Shriver, a Democrat who has endorsed Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. "That (McCain and I) don't agree on everything, it's clear. Nor do I agree with my wife," he said. But "he's terrific with the environment," and with a President...

MIAMI (Reuters) - Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Friday that politicians who suggest that lifting a ban on offshore oil drilling would ease rising fuel prices in the United States were "blowing smoke." The comments were seen by the U.S. media as a slap at Republican leaders including President George W. Bush and the party's presumptive presidential nominee John McCain, who have recently spoken in favor of more offshore drilling as America tries to wean itself from its dependence on foreign oil. A spokesman for the governor, however, said the comments were not directed at McCain, nor at...

The governor's office said Schwarzenegger would skip a planned address to the 47th annual Capital Prayer Breakfast on Tuesday. Instead, he will appear with Republican presidential hopeful John McCain at an environmentally-themed campaign event in Santa Barbara. Organizers believe it is the first time a sitting governor has declined to address the annual gathering, although there is no official record. State Assemblyman Rick Keene has organized the breakfast for the past three years. A spokesman for the Chico Republican, Evan Oneto, said Keene was saddened when he learned the governor would be a no-show. Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said the...

Dulles, Virginia -- Bowing before the politically correct lords of the environmental movement, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared this week that when it comes to the issue of climate change, “America has to lead, and [California is] doing so with or without Washington.” Schwarzenegger was explaining his decision to ratify a two-year environmental alliance between the state of California and the People’s Republic of China under the supervision of the United Nations. Frustrated with the Bush administration’s reluctance to embrace a global climate treaty that would place caps on greenhouse gas emissions, Schwarzenegger engaged the UN and China by making...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's near-and-dear fight to make the state greener is adding a lot of new jobs to the state's already-in-the-red payroll. The governor's latest budget proposal calls for no fewer than 211 greenhouse-gas busters to be sprinkled throughout state government, at an annual cost of $55.4 million. That's 77 more greenies than are on the payroll this year. The new jobs range from $36,000-a-year accounting technicians to $102,000-a-year attorneys to draft and enforce green regulations. Fully half the money and three-fourths of the jobs would go to the California Air Resources Board, the agency charged with monitoring pollution and...

The federal government is "asleep at the wheel," California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said at a conference in Santa Barbara, Calif., on Friday. The Republican governor was talking about the fight between the Golden State and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which denied a waiver that would have allowed the state to enforce a law requiring lower greenhouse-gas emissions from vehicles (see Will U.S. Policy Drive Green-Car Tech Away?). "They don’t get it," he said. While climate-change-fighting activities are happening around the world, he said, the U.S. government has yet to enact national climate-change legislation. "They’ve really failed in coming up...

Santa Barbara, California - Participating in a conference of green-tech entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, corporate executives and environmental and business journalists, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger again today explained how California's environmental policies and focus on booming clean- and green-tech industries will help the state weather a slowed-down economy. He spoke about California's wave of growth in the green technology industry during a conversation at the Wall Street Journal's ECO:nomics Conference in Santa Barbara. "California's environmental policies are driving a whole new industrial revolution in our state that is opening up huge opportunities for California companies to grow and strengthening our economy at...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who once joked that Sacramento was "death," apparently doesn't want to spend many nights in the graveyard. As the Los Angeles Times reported last week, the governor has been spending nearly every night in his Brentwood mansion, shuttling between Sacramento and Southern California in his private jet. The governor uses his own money to pay for his Gulfstream flights, which price out at about $10,000 an hour, the Times reports. And what about the cost to the environment? The governor's staff says he purchases "carbon credits." Such credits are aimed at offsetting the greenhouse gases generated by...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who once joked that Sacramento was "death," apparently doesn't want to spend many nights in the graveyard. As the Los Angeles Times reported last week, the governor has been spending nearly every night in his Brentwood mansion, shuttling between Sacramento and Southern California in his private jet. The governor uses his own money to pay for his Gulfstream flights, which price out at about $10,000 an hour, the Times reports. And what about the cost to the environment? The governor's staff says he purchases "carbon credits."

California's landmark legislation to fight global warming has been on the books for more than a year, but it still lacks stable, long-term funding to help meet its ambitious goal to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest budget proposal calls for a stopgap, two-year effort that relies on borrowing money from a state beverage container recycling fund to run the program. On Monday, members of a joint legislative committee raised questions about funding for AB32, the high-profile measure that seeks to cut the state's carbon emissions by about a third by 2020. "Borrowing from (the recycling fund) ......

(CNN) -- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to sue the federal government over its decision not to allow a California plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, he announced Thursday. Environmental Protection Agency chief Stephen Johnson announced the decision Wednesday, refusing the state's request for a waiver that would have allowed it to cut emissions faster than a new federal plan the president signed into law Wednesday. "It's another example of the administration's failure to treat global warming with the seriousness that it actually demands," the governor said at a news conference Thursday. Bush on Thursday defended the decision of his...

Jerry Brown may have invented the so-called "canoe theory" of politics (paddle a little left, paddle a little right, end up in the center) but Arnold Schwarzenegger has probably come the closest to perfecting it. And this morning the two most recognizable faces in California government looked all the world like BFFs -- best (environmental) friends forever. The attorney general and the governor were there to announce the long-expected filing of a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for inaction on California's request to regulate auto emissions. For almost two years, the agency has been sitting on California's request...

Speech was given on October 12, 2007 in Newport Beach. You have extended me a very dangerous invitation tonight – to speak to a gathering of political conservatives on the day that Al Gore has received the Nobel Peace Prize for discovering that the earth’s climate is changing. I’ve heard that he’s going to contribute half of his prize money to environmental causes and use the other half to pay his electricity bill. And anything left over will come in handy to help pay for the fleet of private jets that allow him to travel around the world to tell...

Most of them didn't endorse Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor, and they clash with him occasionally on issues ranging from smog to logging. But environmental groups said Monday they are surprisingly pleased with the number of environmental bills Schwarzenegger signed ... Of the Sierra Club's list of 25 priority bills, Schwarzenegger signed 18 - or 72 percent - the highest ... since he took office. "It is important that he is signing more environmental bills and across a variety of subjects," said Bill Allayaud, the Sierra Club's state legislative director. "The environment did well this year." Working until nearly midnight Sunday,...

<p>Environmentalists and industry officials alike are holding their breath, waiting for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to act on a stack of environmental bills in the next few days that would do everything from require green building standards on new homes and commercial buildings to banning a controversial type of chemicals in children's toys.</p>

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's efforts to make California a model for greener environmental policies will soon expand to a global stage when he meets with world leaders at a United Nations conference in September. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday invited the governor to the high-level meeting on global warming after the pair toured Echelon Corp., a San Jose-based company that provides energy-efficient networking technologies for residential, commercial, and public electrical equipment. Schwarzenegger accepted the invitation without hesitation at a news conference where the two dignitaries briefly discussed their shared commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption. "Global...

"GOING green" is all the rage among the political class, which is ever eager to look good by jumping aboard the latest craze. But much of what passes for "green" in Sacramento is just a lot of self-righteous posturing - and outrageous waste. Take Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's expensive program to convert the state's massive fleet of cars to "flex fuel" vehicles that can run on alternative fuels. The key word is can - technically, the 1,138 new cars and trucks the Schwarzenegger administration has purchased can run on ethanol. But in reality, they don't. They never have. They run on...

Greener governor seen as rootlessHis inconsistencies on environment befuddle activists. By Kevin Yamamura - Bee Capitol Bureau Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, April 15, 2007 In the latest issue of Outside magazine, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wears an untucked green shirt and jeans, posing as a champion of the environment. He sits on a rock surrounded by a squirrel, rabbit and other creatures of the forest. All while wearing his trademark boots made of dead animal skins. Schwarzenegger has suddenly become an international global warming hero, albeit one with a penchant for Hummers and alligator boots. California environmentalists still aren't entirely...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday that the U.S. and other countries should enter into a new international greenhouse gas reduction pact similar to the Kyoto Protocol that President Bush has opposed and the U.S. has never ratified. Schwarzenegger, speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, said he supports an idea by British Prime Minister Tony Blair to bring all of the Kyoto holdouts into a new worldwide agreement to lower greenhouse gas emissions. "I think the problem is getting so serious now that those countries have to participate, everyone has to participate," Schwarzenegger said. "Including China, including...

WASHINGTON -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday told American automobile companies to "get off your butt" to promote cleaner technologies and said international trade sanctions may be needed to protect the global environment. Declaring that California "is sending the world a message" in leading the fight on global warming, Schwarzenegger made his remarks as the featured speaker for a Global Environmental Leadership Conference at Georgetown University. He is getting national attention -- appearing on the cover of Newsweek magazine this week -- for California's efforts to roll back greenhouse gases by 25 percent by 2020. "In California, we are doing...

WASHINGTON -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger boasted Wednesday that California's leadership is making environmentalism hip, sexy and mainstream, no longer just a guilt-driven movement for "tree-huggers" and "fanatics." "Environmentalists were no fun. They were like prohibitionists at the fraternity party," the moderate Republican governor told a student audience at Georgetown University, part of an East Coast swing to promote his increasingly enthusiastic embrace of the environment. "Successful movements are built on passion. They aren't built on guilt," he said, predicting that environmentalism was reaching a "tipping point" where it will move into the mainstream. "I don't know when the tipping point...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, speaking at Georgetown University, gave one of his more engaging speeches today about the environment. The lecture, sponsored by Newsweek magazine, focused on the green revolution sweeping the United States. The speech was classic Schwarzenegger: all about forward movement and staying positive. Once, he said, environmentalists "were no fun. They were like prohibitionists at the fraternity party." But things have changed, he said, and environmentalism is part of the Establishment, with critical mass and confidence. Schwarzenegger said "for too long the environmental movement has been powered by guilt. But I believe this is about to switch over...

"If you are against taking action on greenhouse gases and carbon emissions, your political base will melt away as surely as the polar icecaps. ... You will become a political penguin on a smaller and smaller ice floe that is driftng out to sea."

It’s a big green week for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He’s on the cover of Newsweek magazine’s save the planet issue, is the keynote speaker of the magazine’s global environmental leadership conference in Washington, and addresses the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. And the British Conservative Party chose the week of his Newsweek cover status to announce that he will headline their annual party conference this fall.

Arnold Schwarzenegger will address the annual conference of Britain's Conservative Party, with the party citing the California governor's commitment to the environment - an issue the British opposition hopes to claim for its own. David Cameron, the Conservative leader, has been attempting to reposition his party - once led by Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill - in the centre, to the dismay of some of the Conservative faithful. But the party, which last won a general election 15 years ago, has seen an increase in support in some polls in Britain, where the government is dominated by Prime Minister Tony...

Slashing greenhouse gases from California's gasoline in the next 14 years will reformulate not just our fuel but quite possibly our entire notion of the California dream, changing what we drive, how we fuel up and — most likely — how much we pay for the pleasure. Gov. Arnold Schwarznegger last week proposed a revolutionary measure in his State of the State address: Cut the carbon content of fuels 10 percent by 2020. It's one of the first concrete steps proposed to meet the state's ambitious greenhouse gas limits, which mandate a reduction of California's greenhouse gas emissions by 2020...

In the state's biggest, immediate step toward cutting global warming pollution, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this week began shifting California's 26 million cars and trucks off petroleum-based fuels and toward alternatives that emit less greenhouse gas. The governor said his new greenhouse-gas standard for transportation fuels -- the world's first -- "leads us away from fossil fuel" and would help "in moving the entire country beyond debate, denial and inaction" on global warming. State air-pollution regulators expect to work out the details during the next 18 months. The policy would limit the amount of greenhouse gases released for each bit of...

Sacramento -- California will create the world's first global warming pollution standard for transportation fuels, ratcheting down fuel carbon content 10 percent by 2020 under a plan put forward by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Tuesday in his State of the State address. The new standard could have implications for the auto industry and change the way gasoline is produced around the globe. Environmentalists hailed it as a way to reduce one of the state's chief sources of greenhouse gas emissions and kick-start fledgling alternative fuel technologies. "This is a big deal. This policy will be noticed worldwide," said Eric Heitz, president...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to call for a bold new environmental plan in his State of the State address Tuesday evening. The speech, scheduled to begin at 5 p.m., will call upon Californians to make the Golden State a leader in the fight against global warming, NBC11's Mike Luery reported. "I propose that California be the first in the world to develop a low-carbon fuel standard that leads us away from fossil fuels," Schwarzenegger said. The governor said he wants to see 7 million hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles on California's roadways. That's more than 20 times the current...

SACRAMENTO — Escalating California's battle against global warming, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to announce today that he will order a 10% cut in motor vehicle emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide. Under the proposal, petroleum refiners and gasoline sellers would be ordered to reduce the carbon content of their fuels over the next 13 years. The order could also usher in a new generation of alternative fuels in California, experts say, as refiners consider adding ethanol or other biofuels into gasoline blends. It could also mean a shift of part of the state's auto fleet to hydrogen or...

If you live in any state but California, this might be a good time to prepare for the arrival of new businesses. The Golden State's politicians think they're going to lead the world again. All they think they need to do from Sacramento is command the planet's climate to cease that infernal warming we've heard so much about. What they'll end up doing is command people to live in much more primitive ways. Unless these politicians actually want to expel entrepreneurs, most businesses are expected to stay home and perform obediently under a new regulatory regime. Some even expect that,...

State Moves Forward on Implementing Landmark Global Warming Law Market Advisory Committee Members Chosen, Early Action Workshop Scheduled SACRAMENTO – Today, Linda Adams, Secretary for Environmental Protection, announced a 14-member Market Advisory Committee to support the implementation of the state’s first-in-the-nation comprehensive greenhouse gas reduction program. The Committee was formed according to the Governor’s Executive Order S-20-06. The Committee will make recommendations by June 30, 2007, to the state Air Resources Board on the design of a market-based compliance program. “California is showing tremendous leadership on climate change. In my talks with national and international climate leaders, the progress we’re...

Arnold Schwarzenegger is not the type of guy you would necessarily associate with tree hugging. ... This year he signed the nation's first environmental law of its kind, committing the state to lowering its greenhouse gas production to 1990 levels by 2020 and setting up an international program that provides manufacturers with incentives to lower carbon emissions, which is supposed to begin by 2012. He has vowed to fight any attempt to drill for oil off California's coast. And now Schwarzenegger, a Republican, wants to use his star power to turn global warming into an issue in the 2008 presidential...

WASHINGTON - Imagine the scene next month: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger brings his California message of fighting global warming to the U.S. Senate, helping launch Sen. Barbara Boxer's campaign for national controls on greenhouse gas emissions. Expect the media-savvy governor to extol California-style bipartisanship -- in contrast to Washington-style gridlock -- as the key to achieving results. Schwarzenegger and Boxer, who will chair the Environment Committee, have touted the state's emissions controls as a model for national action. Then, the TV lights will go dark and the legislative grind begins. Even as public consciousness grows about the threat of climate change,...

Coastside commercial fishermen were pleased that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Friday signed the Sustainable Oceans Act, severely restricting future fish-farming along the California coast. The act, authored by Palo Alto Democrat Joe Simitian, allows ocean farming operations but requires stringent environmental protections that industry experts are calling the toughest in the nation. Coastside fisherman Pietro Parravano, president of the Institute of Fishery Resources, said Saturday the new rules should help protect marine ecosystems and water quality. He said the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Association had lobbied for passage of the act. There are currently no finfish aquaculture operations on the...

SACRAMENTO – Like gold and pork bellies, California's carbon dioxide emissions credits may someday emerge as the big thing on commodity markets. Brokers who specialize in the art of the deal are closely following developments here as California steers toward a controversial, yet common, market-based course to reduce pollution many scientists link to global warming. Under the proposal, California would reward low-polluting companies with emissions credits that they can then sell on an open market to industries that cannot readily curb greenhouse gas discharges. Companies are already forming a line, said Josh Margolis, a manager with Cantor Fitzgerald Brokerage. “We...

The leader of the state Senate on Monday accused Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of overstepping his authority in implementing California's pioneering plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The governor's office fired back, saying he would not deviate from a market-based approach he believes would reach emission targets without disrupting California's economy. Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata sent a letter to Schwarzenegger pointing out differences between the governor's executive order and the global warming bill negotiated with Democrats in the state Legislature in late August. The executive order directs the Air Resources Board to develop a market-based compliance program at the...

America's greenest governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, announced on Oct. 16 that he was planning to set up an emissions-trading scheme between California and other states to try to curb the output of greenhouse gases. Given the complexity of designing and operating such schemes, it is fortunate for Schwarzenegger that Europe already has one up and running; for it offers valuable lessons in what not to do. Europe's Emissions-Trading Scheme (ETS) was one of the few substantial developments to emerge from the wreckage of the Kyoto Protocol. Its purpose was threefold: to cut emissions; to get polluters to pay for the damage...

While Schwarzenegger has signed dozens of environmentally friendly bills and selected top advisers from the environmental community, he also has left a trail of controversial appointments, weak executive orders instead of critical reforms and vetoes of bills opposed by the business community. But before he signed legislation establishing the country's first state cap on greenhouse gases, Schwarzenegger sought to weaken it in favor of business interests and threatened a veto if Democrats didn't cede to his requests. The governor also vetoed several bills that would have helped the state meet the new cap. he rejected legislation that would have weakened...

10/16/2006         GAAS:760:06           FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Gov. Schwarzenegger Announces Executive Order to Begin Implementation of Landmark Greenhouse Gas Legislation; Focuses on Developing Market-Based Solutions In conjunction with his meetings with New York Gov. Pataki and New York Mayor Bloomberg, Gov. Schwarzenegger announced an executive order that directs state agencies to begin implementation of AB 32, California's landmark global greenhouse legislation signed last month. Some of the highlights of the executive order include: • The Secretary for Environmental Protection shall be the statewide leader for California's greenhouse gas emission reduction programs for state...

SACRAMENTO Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will announce an executive order Monday in New York that joins California's landmark global warming law with the Northeast's program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The executive order is the first step in creating a system that helps California's biggest manufacturers to comply with stricter environmental regulations, a Schwarzenegger administration official said. Industrial corporations and utility companies must cut their greenhouse gas emissions by roughly 25 percent by 2020. "Gov. Schwarzenegger wants to build a large, robust carbon trading market that will dramatically reduce emissions," said Schwarzenegger communications director Adam Mendelson. "The more robust the market,...

CALIFORNIA Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will go to New York on Monday to discuss his landmark law on global warming with fellow Republicans as pressure builds on US President George W. Bush to take a tougher stance on greenhouse gases. Mr Schwarzenegger will meet separately with Gov. George Pataki and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg "to discuss the implementation of California's landmark market-based greenhouse gas emissions reduction system," his office said overnight. Last month, Mr Schwarzenegger signed the Democratic-sponsored Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which mandates caps on emissions to reduce greenhouse gases 25 percent by 2020. The governor,...