The wrangling from the state effort to resolve a global problem continues.
Daniel Weintraub: Republicans tangle with old foe on global warming
Published 12:00 am PDT Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Jerry Brown, who has been confounding California Republicans for more than 30 years, is at it again.
The Democratic attorney general -- who served as governor in the 1970s and 1980s, led the California Democratic Party, ran for president and then served as mayor of Oakland -- is now in the middle of a dispute that has been blamed for blocking passage of the state budget more than six weeks after it is due.
Brown has made global warming one of his top areas of concern, and he is using his office to pressure local governments to account for the potential increase in greenhouse gas emissions when they consider new development. He has sued San Bernardino County to block its adoption of a 25-year master plan meant to guide growth in that booming region.
Brown's campaign has put the state's business leaders on edge, and their complaints found a receptive audience among Republicans in the state Senate. As part of the price for their votes on the state budget, those lawmakers are demanding a provision that would stop Brown -- or anyone else -- from filing any more such lawsuits until 2012.
