Red, Green and Blue: How Green is Arnold?
It’s hard to figure out California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. On the one hand, he helped the state enact landmark legislation aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and encouraging the use of renewable fuels and clean energy. On the other hand, he makes some decisions that leave environmentalists saying, "Whaaaa?"
Consider the Governator’s latest round of bill signings and vetoes: the green guv OKd bans on trans-fats in public schools, lead-based ammunition in areas frequented by the California condor, and phthalates (plastic softeners that can also act as endocrine disruptors) in toys and other products designed for children ages 3 and under. But the not-so-green Arnold vetoed legislation that would have required chain restaurants to post nutritional information on menus and boards, labels for food products made from cloned livestock, sustainable building standards for state buildings, and point-of-purchase information on where electronics buyers could properly dispose of their purchases later.
So what is Schwarzenegger? Is he a mostly environmental guy who, because he’s pragmatic, sometimes makes decisions greens don’t like? Or is he mostly a politician cut from the same cloth as so many others, who occasionally does the right thing environmentally because the public — especially in California — demands it?
Also on GO:
Opinion: California Governor Nixes Industrial Hemp While North Dakota Moves On
Western US, Cananda Announce Global Warming Goal
The Governator Guest Stars on Green Edition of MTV’s Pimp My Ride
Tags: arnold schwarzenegger, California, environmentalist, global warming, greenhouse gases, landmark legislation, Red, Green and Blue
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October 17th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
I think Arnie’s got his heart in the right place Shirley. Sometimes though you’ve got to do an economic balancing act. His degree is in economics you know. I like Arnold. Kin folk aside; he seems to be a pretty good guy. Fiscal conservative; social liberal with a green streak the width of the Colorado River… certainly my kind of guy.
October 18th, 2007 at 5:31 am
Yeah, who cares if he ultimately want to rule an empire that spans the G8?
David
October 18th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
David, LOL!
Still, you’ve got to admit, the Governator makes some weird environmental decisions. For example, while the California League of Conservation Voters (CLCV) rated Schwarzenegger highly for his support of the landmark greenhouse gas legislation in 2006, its across-the-board scorecard showed the governor’s performance actually dropping last year; he signed only half the environmental bills crossing his desk, compared to 58 percent of the bills in the previous two years.
"Despite the success of (the greenhouse gas legislation) and the Governor’s public embrace of the environment, his record on signing good environmental bills into law remains mediocre," the CLCV stated.
One of the issues the CLCV had the most trouble with last year was Schwarzenegger’s veto of a bill that would have set a $30 fee for each container going through the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports. Money from the fee would have been used to reduce port air pollution and improve port security and rail transportation. The bill would have made the polluters (ships entering California ports) pay to clean up at least part of the pollution they created. Instead, Schwarzenegger shifted pollution cleanup costs to the state’s general fund, meaning taxpayers across California will foot the bill for the next 30 years. That doesn’t sound fiscally conservative to me.
And just this week, our own Max Lindberg chided the Gov for caving in to same ol’, same ol’ thinking on industrial hemp while North Dakota has had the guts to license the crop under strict regulations. It’s decisions like those that sometimes make me suspect Arnold is more of an environmentalist-lite.
January 14th, 2008 at 7:20 am
Cut him a break Shirley. You gotta hand it to him, he is trying. We have to remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day and it’s going to take time to get all the things we want. Politics as sketchy as it may be is about compromise. As a politician he’s got to answer to the voters as well as his other financial supporters. That requires an incredible balancing act with not much room for error either way.
Instead of whining about what he hasn’t done, let’s praise him for what he has done and encourage him to do more. Let’s face it there could be much worse than Arnie and we all know it.