Climate Change: Arnold Uncapped

[realFedUp]

(and why did Vanity Fair find it necessary to include
Arnold in their "green" photo spread?)

http://www.newwestnotes.com/environment-arnold-uncapped/

Climate Change: Arnold Uncapped
Bill Bradley

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s drive to define himself as a different kind of Republican tripped itself up a bit yesterday in San Francisco. There, at his Climate Action Summit in San Francisco City Hall, the former action superstar slid back from his plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions in California, which will make it harder for him to show his environmental bona fides.

Contrary to reports yesterday in the San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, and here, the assurances of his advisors, and a reading of his just delivered speech, Schwarzenegger in the give-and-take portion of the program backed off of his Climate Action Team’s call for the establishment of overall caps on greenhouse gas emissions, at least for now, saying that he doesn’t want “to scare business.” He said that he preferred to start off without a cap, although he seemed flexible on the matter. “We want to give them time,” he said.

So, at least for now, the governor is left with a program of very ambitious goals but no requirement that those goals be met.

In an executive order last year, the governor established the climate action report and set ambitious targets: Reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to year 2000 levels by 2010. Reductions to year 1990 levels by 2020. The latter goal amounts to about a 20 to 25 percent reduction below forecast levels of greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions, principally carbon dioxide, are seen by most scientists as the principal contributor to climate change.

In his speech, Schwarzenegger, embracing regulation, spoke of what is called a cap-and-trade system: “We know that we can't reach targets to reduce greenhouse gases unless we measure our progress. So let's work together to create a mandatory reporting system for our carbon emissions. We know that we can't reduce emissions unless we have market-based solutions, like trading mechanisms, in addition to our regulatory solutions. So let's work together to create the world's best market-based system to limit and to slash emissions.”

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