Lots of Arnold supporters make a big deal out of his supposedly "clean" record on the environment. "He's a Republican," they say, "but Arnold's different!"
And, true to form, recently Arnold has used all the benefits of incumbency to help promote this clean image. He had Tony Blair come visit to talk about the environment. Then, with an extravagant PR showcase, the Governator teamed up with the Democrats (the same people he used to call "girly") to sign a landmark, bi-partisian law designed to dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions in California. Good news, for sure, right?
Wrong. Arnold is already going back on his word.
This past Monday, Arnold traveled to New York to make yet another big show of his "clean" record on the environment. He attended party fundraisers and rang the bell at the stock exchange. He also surprised everyone by announceing a sweeping new Executive Order (which he signed Tuesday after returning to California) that breaks his promises and makes drastic changes to the greenhouse emissions law he supposedly signed in good faith.
Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez suddenly (and belatedly) realized that Arnold shouldn't be trusted, when he lamented: "You can't rewrite a law through executive order.... This is totally inconsistent with the intent of the law and with the way that it is written." Arnold's new order, which he claims "clarifies" the greenhouse law, changes a crucial aspect of how the law is enforced. In negotiations, Arnold had to give up on his proposal that the Executive Branch would have final say. He went along with the Democratic proposal instead, but now he's used the Executive Order to get what he couldn't get in negotiations. Even worse, Arnold's despicable actions significantly weaken the law -- his idea is to use some kind of emissions trading system with other states rather than just flat out reduce greenhouse emissions like the bill originally intended.
This fiasco is just the latest in Arnold's broken promises on the environment. ThinkProgress documents how Arnold claims to want to reduce California's addiction to oil, but he's refusing to support Prop 87. Rather than take the obvious step of supporting 87 -- which would make oil companies pay their fair share in research for new sources of energy -- Arnold is instead going all out to protect the sweet deal oil companies (a special interest if there ever was one) currently have in California.
Just like he did on education, Schwarzenegger is breaking his promises. Those mistaken enough to trust Arnold -- including Núñez and a few bizarre newspaper editorial boards -- need to remember that just because he's running for reelection doesn't mean that we're looking at a new Arnold.