Schwarzenegger

In 2006, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law Assembly Bill 32, the first state global warming legislation to cap greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors of the economy. The law calls for capping greenhouse gas emissions in 2012 and reducing emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

Supporters say AB 32 will help slow climate change while creating jobs, improving the health of California residents and creating local energy sources that keep energy money from leaving the state. A recent Union of Concerned Scientists study showed that the cost for small businesses of AB 32, which has not yet been implemented, would be negligible.

Tom Bowman, president of Bowman design group, also wanted to find out about the costs of AB 32, so he set out for his company to meet or exceed the law’s emissions reductions goals. As a result, the group cut its emissions by 65% and saved close to $9,000 a year in costs, with all capital investments in efficiency and technology being re-paid within 15 months.

“We proved the business case for a small business,” says Bowman. “It’s easy to beat those standards and save money at the same time, which is not the message you’re hearing in the political rhetoric.”

In fact, that rhetoric is making quite contrary claims.

California last week became the first state to integrate green building practices, largely based on the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Efficiency and Environmental Design (LEED) standards, into its statewide building codes.

It was a big, Governator-style move, but while the USGBC officially supports CalGreen, and most in the green building world see it as a net-positive step, not everyone is thrilled about it. In fact many architects, engineers and city planners that fully support the integration of green building practices in the building code are concerned about the challenges involved in implementing and enforcing that code — and those are the building professionals who are advocates of green building in the first place.

California's Arnold Schwarzenegger welcomed fellow governors and mayors from around the world to the second Governors’ Global Climate Summit this week with the goal of involving state and local leaders in collective action to solve the global climate crisis.

This year’s summit hopes to build upon the accomplishments of the first, in 2008, where international leaders signed a memorandum of understanding on reducing greenhouse gases from deforestation and reached preliminary agreements on a number of issues related to climate change.

Schwarzenegger sees the Summit as a leg on the road to Copenhagen. He promised the audience that the findings would be sent to UN negotiators and that he would attend talks in Copenhagen to represent what he is calling a “grassroots” sub-national movement on climate change and the green revolution.

“The 20th Century was fueled by dirty oil, dirty cars and dirty coal,” Schwarzenegger said, imploring leaders to put workers from coal mines into solar panel factories and oil workers into biodiesel refineries.

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• Leslie Berliant's blog
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It is a shame that the senior economics writer for the Wall Street Journal, Stephen Moore, is not interested in existing economic data. He proved it once again in a opinion piece masquerading as a news story under the headline California Green Jobs Experiment Isn't Going Well.

We can dispense with the lie in the headline quite easily by citing the most current jobs data available: Green jobs have grown 10 times faster than total job growth in California since 2005. The data released just last month is available here, and the economic benefits of the green trend have been documented in study after study. The state's pursuit of energy efficiency over the last 35 years has translated into 1.5 million jobs and tens of billions of dollars in payroll taxes and energy savings.

We reached Terry Tamminen, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's environment advisor, via e-mail as he stepped off a plane in India. Here's what he had to say: "I don't know quite where to begin correcting the blatantly wrong information. I would think the Wall Street Journal, being a financial paper, would rely on accurate economic data and could afford a fact checker or two."

But Stephen Moore apparently has no need for facts that get in the way. In a WSJ op-ed called Gang Green published on August 15, 2008, he wrote:

The environmental movement has morphed into the most authoritarian philosophy in America.

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• David Sassoon's blog
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