[wordup] Will Gov. Schwarzenegger be green?

[Adam Shand]

From: http://www.msnbc.com/news/991555.asp?vts=111320031827&cp1=1

Will Gov. Schwarzenegger be green?

California’s new GOP leader could clash with president President Bush 
and California Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger shake hands during the 
president's Nov. 4 visit to Southern California to inspect wildfire 
destruction.
	
By Miguel Llanos
MSNBC
Nov. 13

He won as a Republican, but California Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger 
offered an environmental plan that Al Gore would love — promising 
hydrogen filling stations along highways, solar power in new homes and a 
50 percent cut in smog in just a few years. Parts of Schwarzenegger’s 
platform could clash with another Republican — President Bush — 
especially when it comes to offshore oil drilling, air pollution and 
global warming.

ANY CLASH has the potential to create waves nationwide in large part 
because of California’s mammoth economy and its smog problem — the 
latter allows California’s Environmental Protection Agency to set 
tougher air quality standards than those set by the U.S. EPA. And those 
state standards can end up influencing industry, particularly how cars 
are made.

As a result, environmentalists and conservatives have been looking for 
post-election signs from Schwarzenegger, who takes office on Monday.

Schwarzenegger delivered a strong sign Wednesday, nominating Terry 
Tamminen, a Los Angeles-area environmentalist, to head the California 
EPA. Tamminen, 51, helped draft Schwarzenegger’s environmental platform, 
including the promise to encourage a future of fuel cell vehicles by 
building hydrogen stations every 20 miles on major highways.

Director of the groups Environment Now and Energy Independence Now, 
Tamminen met Schwarzenegger through Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — another 
environmentalist and cousin of Schwarzenegger’s wife, Maria Shriver.

Tamminen told MSNBC.com during the campaign that he believed 
Schwarzenegger was truly committed to cleaner air and water, having seen 
through his volunteer work with children how pollution impacts the young.

The issues that could set Schwarzenegger apart from President Bush 
include these:
Environment and jobs. Early on in his term, the president made clear 
that economic priorities, and particularly jobs, would trump any 
environmental concerns. “We will not do anything that harms our 
economy,” he said in March 2001.

Schwarzenegger has taken a different approach, saying “we do not have to 
choose between protecting our environment and protecting jobs.”

The summary to his environmental platform spells that notion out 
further: “California’s economic future depends significantly on the 
quality of our environment. We face serious environmental challenges, 
which have profound impact on public health and the economy. ‘Jobs vs. 
the environment’ is a false choice. Overwhelming evidence demonstrates 
that clean air and water result in a more productive workforce, and a 
healthier economy, which will contribute to a balanced state budget.”
Offshore drilling. The president wants increased domestic drilling as a 
way to offset oil and natural gas imports. California has offshore wells 
now, but a 1990 moratorium has kept out any new ones.

Schwarzenegger, in his environmental platform, has vowed to fight “for a 
permanent ban on all oil drilling in coastal waters.” And he chose the 
site of California’s worst oil spill, the coast off Santa Barbara, as 
the spot to announce that platform last September.
Industrial air pollution. The Bush administration recently revised a 
Clean Air Act provision so that coal-burning industries get greater 
flexibility on air pollution rules.

Environmentalists and some states have criticized the rule as allowing 
those industries to pollute more. Schwarzenegger, for his part, vows in 
his platform to “protect California’s air quality standards for 
industrial facilities” by directing state officials to “examine the 
impact of the federal decision to exempt new sources of industrial air 
pollution.”

Global warming. Arguing the science is still inconclusive and that 
action now would cost jobs, the president has resisted enacting steps to 
require that industry reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other 
so-called greenhouse gases that many scientists fear are warming Earth.

Schwarzenegger, on the other hand, has embraced a recent California law 
that requires carmakers to reduce CO2 emissions on new cars and trucks.

“California’s landmark legislation to cut greenhouse gases is now law, 
and I will work to implement it and to win the expected challenges in 
court along the way,” he said during the campaign.

Carmakers will be challenging the law — the only one like it in the 
nation — partly on the basis that the U.S. EPA recently refused to list 
CO2 as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. California and nine other 
states are suing to overturn that decision.
Renewable energy. The president has mentioned a role for solar and wind 
power, but offered few specifics.

Schwarzenegger has risked angering a Republican constituency — 
developers and builders — by saying he’d push for legislation requiring 
that, starting in 2005, half of all new homes in California have solar 
power. Builders complain that will raise the cost of homes by $25,000.

VIEWS FROM SIDELINES

Both environmentalists and conservatives are watching and hoping that 
the Schwarzenegger administration will steer their respective way.

The Sierra Club’s California chapter is ready to take Schwarzenegger at 
face value, calling his environmental platform “ambitious and 
forward-looking.”

“Environmentalists have been wary of embracing Schwarzenegger because of 
his lack of a record and his ties to politicos who have opposed our 
efforts,” Sierra Club lobbyist Bill Magavern wrote in a post-election 
analysis to members. “But now the campaign is over and it is time for us 
to try to work with the new governor and to implement his vision.”

Conservatives, for their part, want to see more specifics.

Rob Rivett, an attorney with the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation, 
acknowledged the Schwarzenegger environmental platform sounds liberal, 
but added that other campaign signals suggest a balanced administration 
is in the making.

“The devil’s always in the details,” he said. “We’re keeping our fingers 
crossed that it’s going to be reasonable.”

EYE ON GOVERNOR’S CIRCLE

Both camps are also watching Schwarzenegger’s appointments. One of his 
first drew the ire of conservatives. Bonnie Reiss, a Democrat and 
entertainment industry lawyer who helped start an environmental group, 
was named “senior adviser” to Schwarzenegger.

As for Tamminen, the reported California EPA nominee, Rivett said too 
little is known about him to form an opinion.

The Sierra Club’s Magavern sure has one, and it’s very favorable.

“We think he would be an excellent secretary at CalEPA,” said Magavern. 
“He’s knowledgeable and clearly has the ear of the governor-elect.”

Another question mark is who’ll head the California Resources Agency, 
which handles land and water issues.

Under outgoing Gov. Gray Davis, the agency was led by another 
Environment Now graduate, Mary Nichols. But many observers feel 
Schwarzenegger will turn to a more business friendly nominee in order to 
balance a Tamminen nomination.

Magavern, for one, expects “an eclectic group and a real diversity of 
viewpoints” in the Schwarzenegger administration.

Schwarzenegger proved that Wednesday, announcing not only Tamminen’s 
nomination but that of two Republicans to serve under Tamminen.

James Branham, nominated as EPA undersecretary, was previously a 
lobbyist for the Pacific Lumber, a logging company vilified by 
environmentalists.

Maureen Gorsen, nominated as a deputy secretary, previously served as 
general counsel for the Resources Agency under Gov. Pete Wilson.

BALANCING ACT

The biggest spotlight, of course, will be on Schwarzenegger himself. Can 
he be green while the state government bleeds red and businesses 
complain that taxes and regulations are driving them from California? 
Can he afford to challenge the Bush administration on environmental 
issues when he also needs federal help on issues from natural disasters 
to energy?

“We would like to see Schwarzenegger stand up to the Bush 
administration,” Magavern said, but realistically “I think we’ll see 
both policy and politics. Schwarzenegger has to walk a line.”

One of Schwarzenegger’s catchiest campaign promises was to convert one 
of his Hummer SUVs to run on pollution-free hydrogen.

Tai Robinson, a mechanic who is among the bidders for the project, said 
a decision has been delayed but that he hopes Schwarzenegger “sticks to 
his word.”

“I’ve still got my fingers crossed to see where things go,” he said. 
“It’s definitely going to be a telling tale about his environmental 
priorities.