Hostile Climate Greets Governor's Plan to Save Earth
SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is running for reelection as a self-styled bold leader, who can boost the business climate at the same time he protects the planet from global warming.
But Schwarzenegger's latest plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions beginning in 2012 is being greeted with skepticism by many environmentalists and downright opposition from major business lobbyists.
And if a compromise is to emerge, it must come in the next three weeks. The Legislature finishes for the year Aug. 31.
"It's really important to the governor and the Legislature that something gets passed in this area of global warming," said Mark Baldassare, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California.
"The public is saying it's increasingly worried about the effects of global warming on the quality of life and the economy."
The bill designed to carry out the governor's Climate Action Initiative is heading toward final action in the Legislature. But many of its details remain hotly contested.
Still being debated -- in committee rooms and behind closed doors -- are issues of which businesses would be regulated, what agency would be charged with enforcement and what restrictions would be imposed on the state's big air polluters.
"We think this is clearly the most important environmental bill of the year and maybe the most important bill of the year," said Linda Adams, secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency, who would play a key role in making any new law work.
Schwarzenegger and British Prime Minister Tony Blair had signed an agreement July 31 to work together to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
"California will not wait for our federal government to take strong action on global warming," the governor said.
As Sacramento negotiations ensue this week, environmentalists expressed concern that the governor's plan lacked the teeth needed to enforce strict limits on the amount of carbon dioxide pollution from power plants, refineries and cement kilns.
Business groups fear that imposing mandatory caps on emissions would burden California companies by driving already steep electricity prices higher.
"We can't really tolerate anything that raises energy costs," said Dorothy Rothrock, vice president of the California Manufacturers & Technology Assn.
