California's Williamson Act, which was designed to protect farmland from development, is under threat in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's state budget plan, according to the S.F. Chronicle and The Ethicurean and The Sacramento Bee and Grist and a local Assemblywoman and the Tulare Chamber of Commerce.
Environmentalists are closely watching the budget-cutting proposal from the pro-growth "green" governor, who simultaneously wants to curb global-warming emissions while spending billions on new or refurbishing freeways. He's so complicated!
The Williamson Act, says the Ethicurean, "helps preserve farms and ranches by allowing those who enroll in the program to have their land taxed at a rate based on actual use, not potential use. The state then compensates cities and counties for the revenue loss." But the governor's budget would shift the $40 million cost to cities and
counties, which would increase the temptation on farmers to "to
shut down operations and sell to the highest bidder, namely developers."
"It was a bad idea then and an
even worse idea today," Assemblywoman Lois Wolk wrote to Schwarzenegger recently, referring to a similar proposal by Gov. Gray Davis in 2003.
"We urge you to reconsider this ill-advised proposal that will only
harm our rural economies while providing negligible benefit to the
state budget."
The governor's agriculture secretary, A.G. Kawamura, says the Schwarzenegger administration doesn't want to end the Act, but rather shift responsibility: "These
local budgets have seen tremendous growth in property tax revenues in
the past decade and are in a better position than the state to continue
with this responsibility."
(Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP)
A group of ExxonMobil shareholders--including the California State Teachers Retirement System and the New York City Employees Retirement System--said they planned to increase pressure on oil giant ExxonMobil to change its climate change policies. "ExxonMobil's go-slow approach on renewables, its resistance to a strong national climate policy, and its campaign to muddy the waters on climate science is troubling to investors," said California state controller and CalSTRS board member John Chiang. IndustryWeek.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell, both Republicans, have authored a scathing opinion piece accusing the Bush administration of inaction and denial that "borders on malfeasance" for blocking tailpipe emission regulations in several states. In the Washington Post today, the duo write:
"By continuing to stonewall
California's request, the federal government is blocking the will of
tens of millions of people in California, Connecticut and other states
who want their government to take real action on global warming.
"The
EPA is finally holding the first of two hearings on the waiver request
tomorrow, and we welcome the opportunity to call attention to the
harmful effects that global warming is having on people and the
environment. But we are far from convinced that the agency intends to follow the law and grant us our waiver. If it fails to do so, we have an obligation to take legal action and settle this issue once and for all." [Emph. added.]
Schwarzenegger and Rell (pictured together looking rather gloomy at a White House event in February) said President George W. Bush's recent executive order requiring further study on global warming "sounds like more of the same inaction and denial, and it is unconscionable."
(Photo: Charles Dharapak/AP)
Actor Burt Reynolds, left, accepts the action movie star lifetime achievement award from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger during the 7th Annual Taurus World Stunt Awards yesterday in Los Angeles. Schwarzenegger called Reynolds "the greatest of the great."
Meanwhile, Schwarzenegger is in Salt Lake City today for a ceremony that will add Utah to the Western Regional Climate Action Initiative. So far, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia have agreed to join the registry, which would track carbon emissions and establish a trading scheme among the states.
Schwarzenegger is signing the agreement with Jon Huntsman Jr., the California-born Republican governor of Utah. Huntsman's decision, according to the Deseret News, "is a bold move that sends a
national message to conservatives that global warming demands
attention, according to Dan Schnur, a political science instructor at
the University of California Berkeley. Schnur said: "This has the potential to be the energy version of Nixon going
to China. A lot of cold warriors felt much more
comfortable establishing relations with China once Nixon was on the
issue. A governor like Huntsman from a state like Utah provides cover
for conservatives in other places."
Something tells me Schwarzenegger (who is traveling to Canada, England and India this year) likes playing the global diplomat more than policy wonk. The excruciating details of health care reform await him when he returns from Utah. Or, rather, after "The Tonight Show" alongside Debra Messing.
If you're rich, influential or Arnold Schwarzenegger, "Svalbard looks forward to seeing you and enlisting your help in solving the planet's climate crisis," the World Hum blog says.
The Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean wants corporate titans and important politicians to see its melting ice flows and endangered polar bears. Perhaps they can take a look at the Svalbard Arctic Seed Depository, where 9,000 species of seeds are locked in an underground safe in preparation for a global catastrophe.
Ben & Jerry's runs a "climage
change college" in the village of Longyearbyen. And Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger has been invited to a global warming summit in August. No word yet on whether he will attend. U.S. Sens. Hillary Clinton and John McCain, visited in 2004. Since then
Nordic prime ministers, tourists, climate students and Arctic
researchers are headed there too.
(Photo: Francois Lenoir/Reuters)
Who is the better environmental spokesman, former Vice President Al Gore or Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger? Slate.com and MediaCurves.com asked a focus group of Democrats, Republicans and independents to register their impressions of both politicians in real time - and the results are here.
The report includes videos of Schwarzenegger and Gore speaking while a fever chart superimposed on the screen registers the various instant reactions. Schwarzenegger does well among all groups, while Gore is the Democratic favorite.
While California has been focused on what comes out of a car's tailpipe, much less attention has been paid to what comes out of a cow's rear end. California is one of the largest dairy producers in the U.S., and the "happy cows" that allegedly live on green-green hillsides flirting with each other also produce a lot of manure.
The efforts to control emissions from cows will offer an insight into how California regulators finally implement global warming regulations signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last year, and how much influence the agriculture industry has on public policy.
Cows contribute to global warming through the creation of nitrous oxide and methane. It's estimated that if all the manure created in California was converted in "methane digesters," it would generate 200 megawatts of electricity a year. That's roughly enough energy to power 200,000 homes - the city of Glendale, for example. It could go into cars as well. Students at Western Washington University have produced the Viking 32, for example, a vehicle powered by electricity and biomethane - cow manure (pictured below.)
But the California Air Resources Board, which must implement the global warming regulations, has put the agriculture's production of methane on a secondary list of priorities.
The influential board has three "early action" items - curbing emissions from tailpipes and the "non-professional" servicing of air conditioners, and increasing the capture of methane from landfills. The get-to-it by 2009 list is much longer and includes regulations on cow methane, cooler roofs, the electrification of ports and a host of other actions. The early action report is here, PDF.
Why the wait on agriculture? Carbon Control News today says officials want to make sure a new cap-and-trade system championed by Schwarzenegger is established before putting mandatory regulations on dairies that could
"crush an emerging GHG credit trading program as well as an alternative
electricity generation and biogas market through the utilization of
methane digester technology. 'We don't want to destroy this emerging technology by mandating it too
soon or setting unrealistic expectations for what it can do,' says a
dairy industry source."
The Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment, meanwhile, wants air regulators to mandate methane digester technology on dairies and require that cows to be housed in enclosed barns to "limit further enteric methane emissions." But, the newsletter says, methane from some California farms already is being credited and sold on the carbon trading market, and PG&E has reached agreements with some farms that supply methane power to the grid.
That's all for now. Amid Schwarzenegger's high-profile chest-beating over the new global warming regulations, California business is closely watching the fine-print regulatory action in Sacramento. In this case, the influence of California's vast agriculture industry will be something to watch during the next two years as the air board gets around to cows.
(Photos:
Alex Wong/Getty Images; Damian Dovarganes/AP)
Terry Tamminen, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's former Cal-EPA chief and Cabinet secretary, has left the administration to work on global warming regulations around the world and run for president of the United States. He's still frequently touted as Schwarzenegger's closest environmental advisor, and he just finished a book about the dangers of oil consumption, "Lives Per Gallon," which he is promoting on a book tour.
Tamminen is, er, eclectic to say the least. Amid his environmental efforts, he's found time to update his "Ultimate Guide to Pool Maintenance." The 3rd edition - just released, seven years after the 2nd edition - has "information on the latest technology and equipment, together with Quick Start Guides and difficulty ratings for each procedure," according to Amazon.
Tamminen was the owner and operator of a pool and spa service in Los Angeles, and he founded Santa Monica Bay Keeper and the San Diego Bay Keeper. He also is the author of "The Ultimate Guide to Spas and Hot Tubs," and "The Ultimate Guide to Above-Ground Pools."
The green technology movement has prompted one man to rig
up a lawn mower with propane power and drive it 3,000 miles toward
Sacramento in hopes of meeting with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Matt Land, who is
rambling from Indiana to Los Angeles to Sacramento, has offered to mow the lawn at the
Capitol or Schwarzenegger's house upon arrival. Land said he decided to "Clean Cut Across America" after hearing Schwarzenegger talk about alternative fuels on TV.
Schwarzenegger popularized one gigantic machine - the Hummer - through a years-long love affair. And now he says machines can save the planet - if they are efficient and clean enough.
In several speeches over the past few months, Schwarzenegger has said the environmental movement should sex itself up by embracing new technologies such as the electric Tesla Roadster he recently ordered, or biofuels cars, or more water-efficient washing machines, and cleaner cars. He said we don't have to be Buddhist monks to save the planet.
Not everyone is convinced that global warming can be reversed through cool machines.
Environmentalist James Murray says Schwarzenegger's message comes at exactly the right moment, when being green has a young, ethusiastic demographic, finds itself "centered on new technologies and innovation which is
inherently glamorous," involves ethical behavior currently in vogue, and "has access to the
arguably greatest aphrodisiac of them all – money." But: "While this 'technology will save us' message makes for great political oratory it is a recipe for long term climatic disaster. Schwarzenegger is right that the development of green technologies are likely to deliver more environmental benefits than prohibitionist regulatory measures – but why does it have to be an either or equation? [Snip.]
"There is a danger inherent to this approach of reassuring people and businesses that they do not have to make fundamental changes, because failing to face up to the fact that certain products and behaviours are simply unsustainable will only make it harder for politicians to push through the necessary changes when they realise we are not reducing carbon emissions fast enough to stabilise the climate.
"For example, Schwarzenegger has publicly vowed to support the Hummer and the SUV by claiming that biofuels or hydrogen cells can make them environmentally friendly, but where does he go if, as many scientists believe, biofuels are proved to be more environmentally damaging than conventional fuels or hydrogen cells fail to make the transition from the lab to the production line?"
Many environmentalists believe that a rapid and dramatic drop in consumption is the only way to reduce the high carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Turn off lights, stop driving, use public transportation, build fewer roads. Indeed, the efforts by General Motors to convert one of Schwarzenegger's Hummers into a hybrid proved difficult. The Tesla Roadster the governor touted has a much smaller range - 200 miles, compared to 250 - than originally billed by the company. He wants to spend billions on more roads.
(Photos: GM; Fred Prouser/Reuters)
 The New York Observer on Mayor Michael Bloomberg's new global warming plan for New York:
"The presentation was launched with a taped introduction of the Mayor by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, in which he called Mr. Bloomberg an 'environmental warrior' and his 'soul mate.' Mr. Bloomberg then strode down an aisle between the chairs from the back of the room. African drumbeats pounded through the speakers and bright lights illuminated his walk to the podium, which skirted two giant television screens and billboards displaying PlaNYC-inspired art drawn by PS215 students in Brooklyn."
* * *
The donkey race: Heading into the weekend Democratic convention, Steve Maviglio handicaps the speakers. Barack Obama has "the most to lose," Hillary Clinton "is never going to woo the kind of Democrat that has 14 anti-Bush bumper stickers on the back of their Prius," and John Edwards "hasn't done a helluva lot here in comparison to the other two frontrunners. But this is as good a time as ever to make his move." Majority Report.
(Photo: Office of Mayor Bloomberg.)
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California's Williamson Act, which was designed to protect farmland from development, is under threat in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's state budget plan, according to the S.F. Chronicle and The Ethicurean and The Sacramento Bee and Grist and a local Assemblywoman and the Tulare Chamber of Commerce. 
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