This is what I started and California will take back the state from radical environmentalists. November elections will see a lot of this hoax just disappear and guess what the world will still be here going through its natural processes. Hopefully this will end these radicals reign for a long time.
(12-20) 04:00 PST Copenhagen – —
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a swarm of California officials came to the U.N. climate summit last week to brag about their state’s accomplishments and show foreigners that it is the cutting edge of U.S. action to curb emissions.
But like President Obama, they got caught in a train wreck of discord in the 13-day meeting that ended Saturday, as the 193 nations present agreed only to "take note" of a U.S.-brokered, nonbinding statement of intentions that glossed over the world’s differences on who should shoulder which responsibilities in the fight against climate change.
The diplomatic clash set up a catch-22 for California. The inconclusive results of the climate negotiations have made the state’s leadership in climate policy all the more important. California’s aggressive actions on auto emission standards, renewable energy, building weatherization and solar panels are encouraging other states and cities in the United States and around the globe to plunge ahead with their own similar policies.
But the stalemate in Copenhagen may also increase the political risk in California, where resistance to the state’s climate policies is gathering force.
"A train wreck always raises concerns," said Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills (Los Angeles County), who wrote the state’s landmark climate-change law in 2006 and was one of the state’s leaders in Copenhagen.
"It fuels the argument that because of the recession we can’t move forward," she said. "The opposition has used the recession to try to do a general rollback, and they may do that here with this."
Pavley and other state officials worry that failure of the U.N. climate negotiations will embolden opponents who hope to roll back California’s climate policies in next year’s election.
Ballot measure
Conservatives, led by Assemblyman Dan Logue, R-Linda (Yuba County), Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Granite Bay (Placer County), and anti-tax advocate Ted Costa, have submitted to the attorney general an initiative for the November ballot that would freeze the state’s compliance with its own climate mandate, the 2006 law known as AB32.
GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has pledged to suspend compliance with the law immediately if elected.
"People who are trying to use AB32 in next year’s election will use any negative result out of Copenhagen," said Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board, the powerful agency that is drawing up the web of regulations that will enforce the bill. "They already believe they’ve caught something they can use to get people to the polls."
California officials have been traveling to climate summits and other diplomatic venues for several years to boast about their track record. By nearly any standard, their pride is well earned. The state is viewed far and wide as a leader in climate policies such as AB32.
In the past year, Schwarzenegger has signed several climate agreements with foreign state, provincial and municipal governments, including:
— An agreement with 10 other states in Brazil, Indonesia and the United States to work jointly to protect tropical forests, possibly creating tradeable offsets for California’s cap-and-trade program.
— A partnership with the U.N. Development Program to offer technical assistance to Africa for low-carbon development.
— A partnership with Jiangsu Province in China to share policy know-how and to cooperate on technology. It is the first state-level agreement between China and the United States to work together to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
But the crucial phase comes next year, when the air board must release its plans to implement AB32, which is intended to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
"If this conference does not get a strong agreement, some will say that Copenhagen has failed, that we talk grandly but we are fooling ourselves," and that much like in the fairy tale, the emperor has no clothes, the Republican governor told a news conference Tuesday. "Perhaps the real success is to give us the opportunity to think differently again. Perhaps the success comes in realizing that something different needs to be done and in fact is already being done."
Many experts agree.
"AB32 is a real leadership issue," said Peter Miller, senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council in San Francisco. "Now that the federal process has slowed, California is more important. It’s the same here in Copenhagen. If the forward movement slows, there will be more weight on the sub-national actors."
Some studies show that approximately half the overall U.S. emis
Green eggs, they are already out of money. Next year the state will again be short by 21 billion. There is no more help coming, the state will go broke as it should. The average state worker now makes twice as much money as the private sector and the liberals have turned it into a real mess.
