Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 04/19/2008 7:25:50 AM PDT by calcowgirl
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Frustrated by the paralysis in Washington over combating climate change, Gov. Schwarzenegger and officials from 17 other states signed a pledge Friday to pressure Congress and the next president to quickly adopt aggressive limits on greenhouse-gas emissions.
"Washington is asleep at the wheel, and we can't wait for them," Schwarzenegger told a large crowd at a Yale University climate conference that included three other governors, the premiers of two Canadian provinces and officials from Mexico and Europe.
The 18 states represent more than half of the U.S. population, and state officials said their declaration would help build momentum toward national adoption of emissions controls similar to what California and other states already have adopted. More states will soon join, predicted Terry Tamminen, an adviser to Schwarzenegger and former director of the California Environmental Protection Agency.
Besides California, the states signing the pledge Friday were Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Virginia and Washington.
Schwarzenegger, a featured speaker at the event, showcased his feel-good environmentalism and business sensibility, insisting "the environmental cause would be unwinnable without technology and capitalism."
"That shift is happening, and it's not a fairy tale," the Republican governor said, adding that support from Republicans and business leaders for emissions controls was crucial.
A big supporter of Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, Schwarzenegger has fought the Bush administration over several high-profile issues, including the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to block the state's bid to set its own tailpipe-emissions standards.
The governor praised the three remaining presidential candidates and said much would change in January, when a new president takes over: "President McCain, President Obama, President Clinton - all three candidates would be great for the environment."
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Corzine was at this conference.
http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-global0419.artapr19,0,1146491.story
NEW HAVEN - The moment he strode into Woolsey Hall Friday afternoon, late but just in time for a photo op, Arnold Schwarzenegger changed the climate of Yale’s austere gathering of governors and gave the sweltering crowd a boost of energy — and a lot to think about.
In what was intended as a historic replay of a landmark meeting on conservation called by President Theodore Roosevelt 100 years ago, Yale brought together governors and officials from several states this week to sign a declaration calling on the federal government to get moving on climate change.
(snip)
Gov. M. Jodi Rell welcomed the crowd and earned praise from speakers for her efforts on global warming, including the state’s participation in a regional program to curb greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The program sets up a cap-and-trade system that limits emissions and charges companies for permits to emit carbon dioxide, one of the key heat-trapping greenhouse gases associated with global warming. The first auction of such permits is scheduled for September.
The state legislature’s appropriations committee on Friday approved a climate change bill that would begin to set mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions. The bill still needs final approval by the House, the Senate and Rell.
In Washington, Congress is negotiating over a bill co-sponsored by Connecticut independent Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman that would set up a nationwide cap-and-trade system. At issue are mandatory emissions caps, and whether industry will have to pay for permits to emit CO{-2}.
Joining Rell and Schwarzenegger in signing the declaration on the stage in Woolsey Hall were Govs. Jon Corzine of New Jersey and Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas. The governors of Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico New York, Oregon, Virginia and Washington also have signed.
Also on stage were representatives from Mexico and the Czech Republic and two Canadian provincial premiers, Jean Charest of Quebec and Gary Doer of Manitoba, both heavily involved in the issue. Charest announced Friday that his province will join a climate-change initiative involving a coalition of western U.S. states.
Yale also brought in Nobel Prize-winner R.K. Pachauri, head of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to speak at the signing Friday afternoon.
Pachauri dismissed skeptics of global warming and said the world is unquestionably on a path of development and consumption of the Earth’s resources that cannot be sustained.
Vote for Arnold, he’s a Republican. And besides, McClintock can’t win. Vote for McCain, he’s a Republican. And besides,...
No Democrat could have succeeded in pushing this nonsense to the extent Arnie has.
Proof positive that “any (R) is better than a (D)” is pure myth.
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2008/2008-04-18-01.asp
“California is the eighth largest economy in the world. It’s so big, it’s so powerful, what we do has consequences,” said Schwarzenegger, who signed the Global Warming Solutions Act into law in 2006.
This law sets a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050, a level many climate scientists feel is needed to avert the worst effects of global warming.
“When California passed its global warming act, we were alone,” he said. “Now we’ve got partnerships with other states, European nations. Six hundred American cities have signed on to be part of the Kyoto Treaty. America has to lead, and we are doing so even without Washington.”
Today Governor Schwarzenegger also met with Quebec Premier Charest, who announced that Quebec is joining the Western Climate Initiative, which calls for a 15 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2020.
“I trust you heard President Bush’s speech on climate change this week,” the California governor said. “Well, I’m glad he is acknowledging the very serious threat, but now I want to see the sense of real urgency to match that threat. I want to see the federal government approve California’s request for a waiver that will enable 17 states to clean their own air of greenhouse gases.”
How come I knew Maryland would be on the list even before opening the thread?
Declaration Signing
-- Welcome addresses by President Levin and Governor Rell
-- Governors Blagojevich, Corzine, Rell, and Sebelius
-- Observers: Premiers Charest and Doer, Czech Environment Minister
Martin Bursik, Sonoran Minister of Ecology Angel Lopez Guzman
Governors Participating:
-- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
-- Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell
-- Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich
-- Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius
-- New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine
Special Guests:
-- Nobel Laureate R.K. Pachauri
-- Quebec Premier Jean Charest
-- Manitoba Premier Gary Doer
-- Czech Republic Deputy Prime Minister Martin Bursik
-- Christine Todd Whitman, Former EPA administrator and 50th Governor of
New Jersey
-- Scott Pelley, Correspondent, 60 Minutes
States sending representatives on behalf of their Governors:
Arizona, Maine, New Mexico, New York, Washington
States Signing the Policy Declaration:
1. Arizona
2. California
3. Colorado
4. Connecticut
5. Delaware
6. Florida
7. Illinois
8. Kansas
9. Maine
10. Maryland
11. Massachusetts
12. Michigan
13. New Jersey
14. New Mexico
15. New York
16. Oregon
17. Virginia
18. Washington
This is the same thing that Paul Erlich and the rest of the envirowackos have been saying since the 60s. The ingenuity of the free market has proven them wrong and will continue to do so unless idiots like Arnold manage to legislate economic suicide.
The governor praised the three remaining presidential candidates and said much would change in January, when a new president takes over: “President McCain, President Obama, President Clinton - all three candidates would be great for the environment.”
God I wish this idiot had stayed in Austria!
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