The Terminator on Global Warming

The Associated Press reports that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is prodding President Bush to help him terminate global warming. The block quotes are from the AP article followed by my comments:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who recently signed a sweeping law to cut greenhouse gas emissions in California, complained in a letter to President Bush that there is no coherent federal policy to stop global warming.

Just what California needs, another sweeping law. The article doesn't say if there is an incoherent federal policy to stop global warming. I wonder if the Terminator wants the federal law to be "sweeping" as well as "coherent."

The Republican governor wrote that the state's request for a federal waiver to set vehicle emissions standards has been "ignored with no explanation" despite an earlier letter from the governor to Bush, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.

The Terminator doesn't like being ingored, especially when he doesn't know why he's being ignored.

Schwarzenegger, up for re-election, has taken several jabs at fellow Republicans in Washington over environmental policy in recent weeks. He calls the fight against global warming one of the most important issues of modern times.

Politicians (or reporters) just can't help but weasel word everything they say. Notice that he calls the fight against global warming one of the most important issues of modern times. It doesn't say that he believes the fight against global warming is one of the most important issues of modern times. I can call white black if I want; I just won't be correct if I do.

Notice also that he calls the fight against global warming one of the most important issues of modern times. I could say that the fight against ingrown toenails is one of the most important issues of modern times, and be correct -- if I'm talking about the million most important issues.

At a recent campaign stop in San Diego, Schwarzenegger boasted of the steps he had taken to fight global warning and cut reliance on Mideast oil by promoting alternative energy. "The sad story is that, nationally, we don't have great leadership on that," he said.

Not like they do in California! Right Arnold?

California's efforts on global warming have been in the spotlight since Schwarzenegger and the state's Democrats reached an accord in August on legislation to cut greenhouse gases. The measure imposes a first-in-the-nation emissions cap on utilities, refineries and manufacturing plants in a bid to curb the gases that scientists blame for warming the Earth.

I seem to recall that one of the reasons that Gray Davis was recalled and Schwarzenegger was elected to replace him was that California was staggering under the burden of a huge debt, and one of the reasons for that was lost tax revenue due to manufacturing and other businesses leaving California because of burdensome laws and regulations. If I recall correctly, Arnold promised to fix that problem if elected. Further burdening utilities, refineries and manufacturing plants with caps on emissions doesn't seem like fixing the problem to me.

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