Posted by
Playful Walrus on Wednesday, November 17, 2010 5:05:19 PM
Lame-duck failed RINO California Governor Schwarzenegger, desperate for a some sort of legacy given his inability to change things in the state capitol, and no doubt trying to please friends in the Hollywood circles to which he hope to return, is on a global warming kick. He’s used to pretending to fight imaginary problems, isn’t he? Margot Roosevelt
has the Los Angeles Times story.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday launched an international organization to tackle climate change with leaders from regional governments in Europe, South America, Africa, Asia and the United States.
The failure to achieve an international climate pact in Copenhagen last year left many people discouraged, Schwarzenegger said, addressing several hundred delegates to a "climate summit" at UC Davis. But now, he added, "The sub-nationals should do their work.... The green revolution is moving forward full speed ahead without the international agreement."
Funny, if he tried a similar approach to illegal immigration, I'm sure it would be blocked because it is a federal issue. Environmental treaties aren't?
Despite Schwarzenegger's cheerleading, the signing ceremony for the Regions of Climate Action group, known as the R-20, had a lame-duck quality. Only one other U.S. governor, outgoing Democrat Jim Doyle of Wisconsin, was present for the signing in the half-empty auditorium; no provincial leader from China, Earth's largest carbon-emitter, agreed to join the effort.
Schwarzenegger officials had predicted that about 100 government leaders would sign the pact to cooperate on climate change; but in the 11 months since the governor first announced the initiative, only about 25 states and provinces have agreed to be part of the group. Besides Doyle, the group includes the governors of Michigan, Oregon and Washington.
Sad.
In an effort to highlight specific progress, Schwarzenegger also signed a "memorandum of agreement" with the governors of the Mexican state of Chiapas and the Brazilian state of Acre to develop a framework that would allow those states to sell forest carbon offsets in California's upcoming cap-and-trade market.
California's draft cap-and-trade regulations allow companies that are required to cut pollution to meet up to 8% of their emissions reduction obligations through offsets, which may eventually include tropical forests in other nations.
What a sham of a mockery of a scam. Which reminds me… I've
written before about the demonization of the very useful plastic bag in California. Well, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted 3-1 for a plastic bag ban in the unincorporated areas of the county. Rong-Gong Lin II
has the Los Angeles Times version of the news.
The ban, which goes beyond ordinances adopted in Malibu and San Francisco, most directly affects 1.1 million people who live outside the county's incorporated cities. But anyone shopping at stores in such areas would encounter the new rules.
Outdoing San Francisco? Yikes.
By January 2012, the ban will cover 1,000 stores throughout the county. The ordinance also seeks to keep shoppers from turning to paper bags as an alternative by requiring stores to levy a 10-cent surcharge per paper bag.
What could go wrong?
The 3-1 vote was partisan, with the three Democrats - Yaroslavsky, Gloria Molina and Mark Ridley-Thomas - supporting it. It was opposed by Republican Michael D. Antonovich; Don Knabe, also a Republican, was absent.
Antonovich expressed concern that small, mom-and-pop shops will be at disadvantage financially, in part because they won't have access to volume discounts for paper and reusable bags. He also worried that low-income people would be forced to buy bags to pick up pet waste or carry their lunch.
"At a time of economic uncertainty, with a large number of businesses leaving our state and community, this would not be an appropriate time ... to impose this additional regulation," Antonovich said.
It is too bad that the others don’t have the perspective of Antonovich.