The governor is becoming a national leader on environmental issues and that is a good thing.
Governor chides automakers to clean up emissions
'Get off your butt,' he says to Michigan
By Michael Doyle - Bee Staff Writers
Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, April 12, 2007
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday told American automobile companies to "get off your butt" to promote cleaner technologies and said international trade sanctions may be needed to protect the global environment.
Declaring that California "is sending the world a message" in leading the fight on global warming, Schwarzenegger made his remarks as the featured speaker for a Global Environmental Leadership Conference at Georgetown University. He is getting national attention -- appearing on the cover of Newsweek magazine this week -- for California's efforts to roll back greenhouse gases by 25 percent by 2020.
"In California, we are doing everything we can to tip the balance in favor of the environment," Schwarzenegger said in his remarks. "California is big. California is powerful, and what we do in California has an impact. We are sending the world a message."
In meetings with politicians, academics and the U.S. foreign policy elite, Schwarzenegger is invoking California as an environmental model.
This week, he privately urged Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson to grant California a waiver needed to regulate tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks.
