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Schwarzenegger 'Blocked Own Green Policy'
The executive director of California's air-quality board, which is responsible for implementing the state's landmark environmental emissions law, has resigned amid allegations that the office of the Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has been deliberately getting in the way of its work.
The unexpected ruckus is deeply embarrassing for a governor who has visited capitals worldwide, including London last week, touting his state as an example to everyone because of its supposed commitment to cutting noxious emissions by 25 per cent by 2020.
Catherine Witherspoon announced she was stepping down from the board just days after the Governor fired its chairman, Robert Sawyer, on the grounds he was dragging his feet in imposing the cuts on industry. He, however, has claimed the contrary - that he was moving too fast and that aides to the Governor were trying to hold up measures that would hurt business.
The Governor's administration has "lost its way on air quality," Ms Witherspoon said after her departure. She said the charge that she and Mr Sawyer were not doing more to implement the new law, the Global Warming Solutions Act, was nothing if not "Orwellian - a triumph of appearances over reality".
Indeed, Mr Sawyer released transcripts this week of voice-mails he had received from aides to the Governor requesting that the board, at a recent meeting, limit itself to adopting three new measures on cutting emissions, when it had four on its agenda.
"Every signal the board got from the Governor's office staff was, 'Slow down, don't hurt industry, don't get ahead of us on greenhouse gases'," Ms Witherspoon said. "They were ordering us to find ways to reduce costs and satisfy lobbyists." She added: "I'm happy to be going out with a roar and not a whimper. My objective is to make sure people understand what is going on so it can be straightened out."
Consumer groups and Democrat leaders have been quick to express their disappointment. "The Governor has made his name across the world as the jolly green governor, and now we have the regulators saying his inner circle has pressured them to go slow because the big industries don't want us to go too quickly," said Jamie Court, of the Foundation for Taxpayers and Consumer Rights.
The Democrat leader of California's State House, Fabian Nunez, also decried the loss of the two members of the board. "The only reason why they're gone is clear: the administration was tying their hands behind their backs in not allowing them to do the job that they needed to do."
Critics of the Governor say he is resisting imposing mandatory caps on industry in favour of market mechanisms to reduce emissions, in part because of his past dependence on them for campaign contributions.
So far, Mr Schwarzenegger has attempted to stay out of the fray. "I don't get caught up in this dialogue," he said.
Mr Sawyer has insisted he was fired because he defied the Governor's order to shelve the offending fourth measure, which will require the car industry to develop new types of paint that better absorb heat and therefore lessen the need for air conditioning. The three other measures involved reducing methane emissions from dumps, banning the sale of replacement refrigerant for car air conditioners, and requiring oil companies to produce petrol with a lower carbon dioxide component.
© 2007 Independent News and Media Limited
9 Comments so far
Show AllSay it isn't so. I thought because Arnie drove around in a biodiesel Hummer he was saving the planet.
Maybe if Arnie and Fred Thompson got together they could start the republican actor's caucus!
-driving around in an air-conditioned hummer limo, spreading democracy and fighting terror.
Never trust a RepubliKKKan.
Schwarzenneger is the Republikan equivalent of Hillary Clinton: Make nice progressive-sounding noises, but ever serve the korporatist masters when it comes down to actually implementing policies which have a chance to make things better. One thing about these thieves: They never take their eyes off of the ball, which is preservation of their own ability to rob and steal.
Not surprising.... Schwazi is a BIG FAKE and a crook.
His engineered coup d'etat in 2003 was set up not only to put him in office to cover up Enron-type utility scams in California, but also the Pharmaceutical Companies' role in manipulating the multi-million-dollar University of California Med School corporate merger scam with Stanford/Hoover University (where much of Bush policy is planned under the veneer of doublespeak pseudo-liberalism). Schwazi campaigned on WalMart parking lots and set about to get rid of the Consumer/Worker protection laws WalMart hated shortly after Schwazi got into office.
The Enron and Stanford scams were about to break in Sacramento when the Republican-manipulated Gray Davis was media-ousted out to make sure a Real Republican (Schwazi is) was in control, to cut out the risk factor.
The University of California SF merger with Stanford is one of the most outrageous scams of our times (part of the Bushreaganomic agenda to privatize all education), and has been left to relative temporary oblivion due to the tightly-censored media reports and corporate media coverups. It's a Huge Can of Worms with only one worm exposed and the rest still crawling inside after a nominal and Fake 'undoing' of the merger to gloss over.... it gets down to core corruption problems in the US medical system and pharmaceutical industries, and Schwazi most likely knows all about it. The impact is nationwide.
Anyone (including professors and university employees) who reported on this when it was happening, in the mid 90s, was quickly slammed and blacklisted, some to living on the streets, most to never being able to get a decent job again, left to rot and hopefully in silence or afraid to speak out for fear of political reprisal. The core problems continue thanks to the very well orchestrated corporate coverup, which involves pharm companies which may well include those allied with the Bushes.... it Needs to be Fully Investigated by Real Investigators and not stacked ones..... like after the 'undoing' of the merger how many pro-corporate-merger employees remained while loyal Univ of Cal employees were pushed out the door to shut them up.
Some call it Corporate Fascism... all sealed up under Schwazi dressed up in his green costume.
The Univ scam (with similar ones carried out in other states too) is having serious impact on the quality of health care for Americans, and has destroyed many lives.
Oh no....say it isn't so!!! Next they'll be reporting that Al Gore and Bill Clinton really didn't want to sign the Kyoto Protocol in 1998 and made no attempt to have it ratified by the Senate! Oh, wait....that really did happen! I have the greatest bumpersticker which says it all... "Under Republicans Man Exploits Man, Under Democrats It's the Other Way Around".
Anyone who thinks Arnie is really some kind of liberal in wolves clothing really ought to check out this bridge I am selling in Brooklyn.
He's the Terminator!
He is planning to turn the earth into a wasteland for a super computer.
Bush is just a lemon version. The wires sticking out his back during the debates was the proof.
Give me a break, a Republican for clean air? What a joke!
Of course, it is fascinating to consider that just a few short years ago, California was setting the standard for cleaner air standards for automobiles, demanding that a rising percentage of cars sold in California be ZERO emission vehicles. And then the California Air Resources Board sold out the state to Big Auto and Big Oil demands, scaling back the laws and claiming that it was impossible for car companies to meet the standards, even as they were DOING so, with Toyota, GM and Honda all producing electric vehicles and selling them, successfully, in California. When the rules were scaled back, the car manufacturers did not continue to move forward at their own pace. Instead, they took back every vehicle from those leasing them and SHREDDED THEM. Now we pretend that this moment in history never existed. Look at the four new measures proposed by CARB return to what was already a successful program for reducing car emissions and the use of fossil fuels. Schwarzenegger driving around in his hydrogen Hummer is more than a joke. It is part of a tactic in California to mislead the public into believing that Electric Vehicles are not viable, when it has been proven otherwise. Worse, the hydrogen trend embraced by Bush and Schwarzenegger is a ruse. 20 years away, at best, the fuel will cost more to produce than we pay for gasoline. Its likely production from dirty fossil fuels will produce more pollution than continuing with the current vehicles and the technology appears likely to fail. At best, it is not the sure bet, current solution that electronic vehicles provide. At worst, it is a fantasy to be drummed into our heads until it is proven worthless technology and our politicians tell us we have to weather ANOTHER 50 years of carbons while they "look" for another solution. If we let them, this ruse will go on until the last drop of oil has been used.
Could this mean that our Democratic legislators may now see that they should stop playing footsie with the REPUBLICAN governor????
Just because he hires some Democrats on his staff (and double pays, by the way, with a salary coming from the state and a salary coming from his campaign committee), does NOT mean he has abandoned the Republican agenda....which is taking care of all of the corporate contributors that he supposedly wasn't going to need when he was bashing Gov. Gray Davis in the recall election.
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The first syllable in "conservative" says it all.