Schwarzenegger Leads the Way With Global Warming Initiative

Posted on August 17, 2006

Fed up with President Bush's willful ignorance on the subject of global warming, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed his own global warming pact with British prime minister Tony Blair. The pact, between Calfornia and Britain, addresses capping of carbon dioxide emissions which are the primary cause of global warming.

California is forging ahead with the most aggressive U.S. program to reduce global warming -- a plan that pits Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger against fellow Republican George W. Bush. Both the governor and his state's Democratic-led legislature want to make California -- the world's eighth largest economy -- a model to follow with caps in greenhouse gas emissions that the U.S. president rejects.
State politicians still are hammering out differences over the proposed Global Warming Solutions Act. If passed, it is likely to play a role in November's vote for governor and in national politics for years to come. Schwarzenegger -- branded "very green for a Republican" by the conservation group Sierra Club -- became an overnight hero for environmentalists a year ago by setting a goal to cut California's emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
More recently, he accused fellow Republicans in Washington of lacking leadership on the environment as he signed a global warming accord with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. "We have a pretty brave governor who feels we should take the lead," said Linda Adams, a Democrat Schwarzenegger chose to run California's Environmental Protection Agency. The Democrats say their bill gives the governor's 2020 target "teeth" with an enforceable cap on emissions and mandatory reporting for top polluters like energy companies.

Schwarzenegger isn't the only state official to ignore the U.S. government's position on global warming. Many city mayors and governors have signed the international Kyoto treaty, including Mayor Bloomberg of New York City. The bottom line is this: the smart governors and mayors know that clean air means less health problems and less health-related expenditures for asthma, allergies and heart disease. And if we don't reduce carbon dioxide emissions quickly, the entire planet is going to face rising temperatures, flooding, devastating hurricanes and droughts. Kudos to Governor Schwarzenegger for providing leadership on this issue.