Arnold Systematically Undermining Environmental Legislation

Our fair governor has been lionized by the press and feted around the world for his leadership on global warming. He is the green Republican who worked in a bipartisan manner to pass landmark global warming legislation (AB32). Too bad he has consistently worked to undermine that legislation from the very moment he signed it into law. Finally, his efforts to protect corporations by watering down the implementation of the law are getting some public and legislative attention.

It took the governor firing the chair of the Air Resources Board (ARB), which is tasked with implementing the law to pull the cover off of what has been going on behind the scenes. Even more information came out yesterday when the board's chief executive quit and took the opportunity to air out her grievances with the Schwarzenegger administration. SFChron:

The executive director of the California Air Resources Board, Catherine Witherspoon, resigned Monday -- three days after Schwarzenegger fired the board's chairman, Robert Sawyer, who had said he wanted to be more aggressive in curbing pollution that causes global warming than does the Republican governor, who signed the state's landmark bill last year.

Sawyer, a 72-year-old engineer, made public on Monday a transcript of a voice mail, left on his phone by one of Schwarzenegger's aides before the air board's meeting last month, urging the chairman to adopt only the three rules acceptable to the governor.

The voice mail directly refuted the claims last week by Arnold's communication director, Adam Mendelsohn, who said the governor "wanted to adopt more tan the three items last month". Yesterday, Mendelsohn attacked the board in response to the airing of the voicemail, saying what they wanted to do "neither made sense nor would have an impact." Mendelsohn and the governor are lacking some serious credibility on the issue.

"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,' " Witherspoon said in an interview on Monday.

The ARB is a governor appointed board, but they have traditionally operated in an very independent manner. That has clearly not been the case with respect to AB32. Arnold failed to get all of the corporate protections he wanted in the original negotiations with the legislature. He decided to sign the bill anyways, eager to get the international praise and have a huge victory he could use in his re-election campaign. His staff moved to try and manage how the ARB implemented the law and this is the result.

The Democratic leadership is speaking out and Speaker Nunez has called for hearings on Friday, where he will call in Sawyer and Witherspoon to testify. SacBee:

"The only reason (Sawyer and Witherspoon) are gone is because clearly the administration was tying their hands behind their backs in not allowing them to do the job that they needed to do in order to begin the implementation phase of AB 32," Núñez states in a recording released by the speaker's office.

Meanwhile, Arnold has encouraged a further politicization of the ARB.

The governor stepped further into the political fray when he said Monday that the next ARB chief must support a market-based system that allows companies to emit more greenhouse gases in California if they buy credits from clean firms elsewhere in the world. Schwarzenegger has signed agreements to link California to other states and nations under such a "cap-and-trade" system.

But Perata and Núñez expressed concern with the governor's use of that criterion as a prerequisite. Democrats assert that AB 32 never mandates cap-and-trade and includes it only as one option to be studied.

Arnold desperately wanted to include cap and trade in AB32, but was only able to convince the Democrats to add it as a potential consideration. We knew Arnold was going to push hard to ensure it was put in to place. Indeed all of this squabbling seems like the opening battles over this particular decision, which is much larger in scope than most of the other decisions the ARB has and will be making. The Democrats are taking steps to ensure their voice is heard on cap and trade.

Environmental groups, backed by Democratic legislators, have denounced the administration's cap-and-trade policy as beyond the intent of AB 32, however, favoring a more direct regulatory mechanism on emissions. The Democratic version of the state budget, in fact, seeks to deny funds for any development of cap-and-trade policy until broader studies are completed.

We are still waiting on the budget, as negotiations take place behind closed doors. It is unclear if that will survive the process, given Arnold's support for cap and trade. It may be a casualty of the process, but here is to hoping the Democrats stick to their guns.

The LAT today uses another one of the ARB's decisions to use as an example for Arnold's negative interference and attempts to undermine his own law.

As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger travels the world exhorting countries to act quickly to reduce harmful gas emissions, his administration is helping California's construction industry stall tough new air quality rules at home.

In public hearings and private negotiations, administration transportation officials are working to slow a planned crackdown by regulators on aging diesel construction equipment — among the state's most noxious machinery and a major source of greenhouse gases.

The officials successfully lobbied a board appointed by the governor to delay voting on draft regulations for dealing with the polluters. The officials argued that the new rules, years in the making, were too tough on the construction industry — which is a major Schwarzenegger donor.

Sawyer, the recently fired ARB chair pushed forward with much more aggressive pollution controls than Arnold wanted. Schwarzenegger tried to claim that it was because he was not being stringent enough, a laughable contention, given all of the above.

This is what the ARB wanted to cut down on emissions from:

Fumes from heavy diesel construction equipment are linked to tens of thousands of cases of asthma and 1,100 deaths annually, state studies show. Scientists and economists say staying in compliance with the federal Clean Air Act would cost the industry more than $3 billion over the next two decades. Construction companies say it could be at least three times that amount.

This is not just about state law, but ensuring that the construction industry complies with federal law. California dragging its feet could jeopardize $1.2 billion in federal transportation funding. There will be a considerable cost to the construction industry, but they are about to see a huge influx in new revenue due to all of the new construction from the infrastructure bonds.

The construction industry donated at least $1.3 billion in direct contributions to Arnold's re-election campaign and footed a good chunk of the bill for his inauguration bonanza. They are getting their payback for all of those donations with Arnold ARB actions. If they could afford all of those contributions, they can find the cash to pay for cleaner equipment.

The Democrats have been moving on legislation to ensure the adoption of the cleaner machines and have now included the issue in budget negotiations. However, like the cap and trade issue, it will have a hard time getting past Arnold veto pen.

I am looking forward to the hearings on Friday. Hopefully, they will be able to shed a little more light on what really went on behind the scenes. The local California media has sunk its teeth into the issue, but it would be impressive to see the national/international media pick up this story-line. It is time for the world to see that green Arnold is only skin deep, just like the paint on his re-election bus.