In response to California Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman calling for a one-year moratorium on AB 32, the landmark law which requires the state to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases 25 percent by 2020, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, at a green jobs exhibit in March, had this to say:
Why would we want to go back to the Stone Age?
While it's good to know that there is still a leading Republican who hasn't gone into complete tea party meltdown, this exchange is important because after last week's death of the climate bill it points our attention to where the next big climate battle in this country is going to take place: KAH-lee-fo-nee-ah.
As was reported in Monday's SF Chronicle article AB32 to face 2 challenges on November ballot, the Governator stepped up his criticism of AB32's opponents in an interview last week that appeared to target Whitman, his fellow Republican:
Everyone who talks about suspending (AB32) is actually trying to pull the wool over people's eyes and has the intention of eliminating it.
Now why would Arnold, he of loyal George Bush endorsing fame, turn on his aspiring Republican successor? I, for one, would like to believe that it's because unlike Queen Meg, my fellow central European turned American citizen is simply not capable of refudiating science in exchange for love letters from James Inhofe and Sarah Palin.
The truth, of course, is much bigger than my little Euro pride: It's that Arnold signed AB32 in 2006, that this has been settled science forever and legislation for four years, that the state of California is just beginning to implement the provisions in AB32 which will bring about above-mentioned reductions in CO2, just to be blindsided by a proposition on the November ballot, oil company backed initiative AB23, that would effectively kill AB32.
Any suspension is tantamount to a repeal of the law, argued its legislative sponsor, state Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills (Los Angeles County), who introduced AB32 as an assemblywoman.
"People engaged in clean technology, alternate fuels and renewable energy need a signal that there's a market for investment," she said. "Suspension of AB32 would mean disaster."
You get it, not only is 23 32 read backwards, but the language is the usual trickery applied in propositions put on by corporate interests trying to hoodwink the public into voting against its own interest. So the official language in the November initiative is to "freeze the provisions of AB 32 until California's unemployment rate drops to 5.5% or below for four consecutive quarters," which The Legislative Analyst's Office says has happened three times in the last 40 years. So if you're one of those science types you can do your math here.
So this is what it comes down to:
Californians will vote twice in November on the state's groundbreaking law to reduce emissions that contribute to global warming - once on an oil company-backed initiative to put the law on hold indefinitely, and once in the governor's race, where Republican Meg Whitman has promised to suspend the rules for a year.
It's very cut and dry, no gray area here at all: If we want to keep implementing AB 32 in California and take meaningful steps toward making significant reductions in greenhouse gases that would most likely also have a serious impact on future climate bills in Congress, we need to bat 2 for 2: AB 23 AND Meg Whitman must be defeated this November, there is no way around it. This is our chance to not only defend what we've accomplished already, but to make a huge statement that California will not bow to lies and distortions and truly cares about the future of life on our planet.
Those ads you see on your screen, with George Bush morphing into Meg Whitman, they are right on target, we should all click on them, because as we've seen so many times in the past, as California goes, so goes the nation.
Here are the stakes again:
Why would we want to go back to the Stone Age?
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
Citing the "significant economic harm" provision, Whitman said in September that she would suspend AB32 on her first day in office.
Attorney General Jerry Brown, Whitman's Democratic opponent, is also a fan of AB32.
"Addressing climate change is one of the great challenges of our time, something that California has been a leader on," said Sterling Clifford, Brown's campaign spokesman.
He said Brown's promotion of wind power and other alternative energy sources as governor from 1975 to 1983 showed that "economic growth and environmental protection are not mutually exclusive."
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