STATE ADMINISTRATION
Governor's plans on environment start to take root
Schwarzenegger 'is green,' many state activists say
San Jose Mercury News - 5/29/04
By Paul Rogers, staff writer
SACRAMENTO - In the office of Terry Tamminen, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's
top environmental adviser, is an old poster of a smiling and shirtless
bodybuilder Arnold, biceps bulging, with the caption: ``I recycle more with
my pinky than you do with both hands.''
The poster was put together as a joke 15 years ago by UCLA students as part
of a recycling campaign. But six months into Schwarzenegger's governorship,
the idea of Arnold-as-environmentalist is no longer a laughing matter.
They didn't support him during last year's recall campaign, but a growing
number of California environmental leaders say Schwarzenegger is turning out
to be greener than they anticipated.
They still grumble regularly that he owns gas-guzzling Hummers -- though he
has sold four of the seven and is retrofitting one to run on hydrogen. And
they say his administration has major tests ahead. Yet on issues from
coastal protection to his staff appointments, from air pollution to water
supply, Schwarzenegger has taken actions that environmentalists are
cautiously cheering.
``Arnold is green,'' said John White, a veteran Sacramento Sierra Club
lobbyist. ``He's a throwback to the old days when Republicans were good on
these issues.''
Schwarzenegger had little experience with environmental topics. But his
beliefs, say people who know him, come from working in movies and
bodybuilding, two industries that value health; living near the ocean in
Southern California; surrounding himself with environmentally minded
advisers; and working with his Inner-City Games Foundation.
``He's gone to areas that have bad air quality, and he's seen kids come off
soccer fields wheezing,'' Tamminen said.
Since taking office Nov. 17, Schwarzenegger has focused mostly on
California's budget. But on the environment:
• He has left in place former Gov. Gray Davis' directors at 12 of the 14
agencies within the state's Environmental Protection Agency and Resources
Agency. His new appointees, Lester Snow and Ryan Broderick, are Democrats
supported by environmentalists.
• He endorsed a bill that would allow hybrid cars with solo drivers into
carpool lanes.
• Last month, Schwarzenegger chose a design for California's quarter
featuring Sierra Club founder John Muir.
• A week after taking office, Schwarzenegger was on the phone with U.S.
senators until 1 a.m., urging them to block a measure limiting California's
ability to regulate smog from small engines such as lawn mowers. In the end,
California's rules survived.
• His revised budget this month supports a ``beneficiary pays'' principle.
That means if farmers want new dams, they probably will have to pay many of
the costs, something environmentalists have long advocated.
• This week, the governor appointed Meg Caldwell, the director of Stanford's
environmental-law program, to the Coastal Commission.
>From a purely political standpoint, Schwarzenegger's moves aren't likely to
hurt him with California voters. ``Arnold is very much in the mainstream in
taking a strong environmental stance,'' said Mark DiCamillo, director of the
non-partisan Field Poll.
Schwarzenegger's top eco-advisers are Tamminen, a former Santa Monica
environmentalist he appointed to run the California EPA -- an agency
Tamminen used to sue -- and Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman, a Visalia
farmer and former Southern California Edison executive active with Ducks
Unlimited.
``These issues have become entirely too partisan, and too polarized,'' said
Chrisman. ``They are not Republican or Democratic. We have to help the
governor steer the debate toward that.''
Other key informal eco-advisers are Schwarzenegger's wife, Maria Shriver;
her cousin, Robert Kennedy Jr., an attorney at the Natural Resources Defense
Council; and Bonnie Reiss, an entertainment lawyer who in the 1980s founded
the Earth Communications Office, a non-profit that worked to place
environmental messages in TV shows.
``He has a Rolodex that none of us can match. On the oceans, he has spent a
lot of time talking to Julie Packard and Leon Panetta,'' Tamminen said,
referring to the Monterey Bay Aquarium executive director and President
Clinton's former chief of staff. ``He's got a very curious mind about other
people's experiences.''
Privately, some in industry say they hoped Schwarzenegger would appoint more
business leaders to key jobs.
Schwarzenegger has not taken positions yet on bills industry opposes that
would charge business to set up a ``biomonitoring'' program to measure
pollutants in people's bodies and to limit developers' removal of oak trees.
He has annoyed environmentalists by setting a standard for perchlorate in
water that some thought should be tougher, and a proposal Friday to
streamline timber permits has raised concerns.
Environmentalists will watch how much he campaigns for President Bush, and
whether he guts environmental agencies to balance the budget.
``An awful lot of action is still in front of him,'' said Fred Keeley,
executive director of the Planning & Conservation League. ``So far, we've
been pleasantly surprised.''
During the recall election, Schwarzenegger called for putting solar power on
50 percent of new homes, creating a ``hydrogen highway'' of 200
hydrogen-vehicle fueling stations by 2010, and expanding parks in inner
cities.
He took several stances opposed by the Bush administration: supporting a
Clinton plan for reduced logging in the Sierra Nevada, opposing ethanol
mandates for gasoline, and wanting no new offshore oil drilling.
Why didn't environmentalists support him then?
``We didn't really know him,'' said Felicia Marcus, vice president of the
Trust for Public Land in San Francisco. ``We're still in the honeymoon
period, but now I think people feel there may well be a record of real
accomplishment with this administration.''#