Schwarzenegger's Green Challenge [TERMINATING GLOBAL WARMING]
CBS News
Dec. 21, 2008
(CBS) President-elect Obama is 30 days from office. For a window on his future, turn west for a moment to a chief executive who is already up to his neck in the nation's troubles.
This month, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger warned of financial Armageddon, as California faced a potential $40 billion deficit that threatened jobs, roads, schools and public safety. At the same time, he's pushing some of the world's toughest environmental laws to make California a leader on climate change.
[BY MEANS OF INDIRECT TAXATION & 'USE' RESTRICTIONS THAT TOGETHER IMPAIR THE EXERCISE OF PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS.]
[See: the new ITSSD Journal on Indirect Taxation, at: http://itssdjournaltaxation.blogspot.com ].
[See: Lawrence A. Kogan, Terminating Global Warming, Energy Dependence or Private Property Rights, ITSSD (June 2006) at: http://www.itssd.org/Publications/Terminating-Global-Warming.pdf ].
The governor agreed to take 60 Minutes along during his most challenging times. How does he deal with it all? Well, what would you expect a former action hero to say?
"The more difficult it gets, the more joy I find in it. Because it's just great to figure out all of the ways of bringing people together and shaping policy. But to get it done, to get there is always a long process. But when you get it done, it’s very satisfying," Gov. Schwarzenegger told correspondent Scott Pelley.
Maybe it was acting. When 60 Minutes met Schwarzenegger at the state Capitol in Sacramento, he had just declared a state of emergency. His budget plan touched off a political firestorm which, of course, in California, would be accompanied by a real one.
Schwarzenegger and Pelley visited one Los Angeles neighborhood burned to ash just weeks before - evidence to Schwarzenegger that even in these times, the greatest threat is climate change.
[ONCE AGAIN, THE SCIENCE HAS NOT YET ESTABLISHED A MEASURABLE, PRIMARY CAUSAL LINK BETWEEN HUMAN ACTIVITIES, NONCYCLICAL GLOBAL WARMING & NONCYCLICAL CLIMATE CHANGE - SO THE GOVERNATOR'S STATEMENT IS INTENTIONALLY MISLEADING BECAUSE THIS HAS NOT YET BEEN SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN].
"It all happened so fast they couldn't save one single one of those homes. Over 500 homes here were destroyed within hours," Schwarzenegger explained as they walked through charred remains.
"You know, there's been a lot of research that suggests that there are more fires and there are hotter fires because the fire season has been extended by climate change," Pelley remarked.
"Well, we have been doing some research in that, and we have seen the changes. We don't have a fire season anymore. It starts in the beginning of the year and goes all year around and so it has created, of course, big challenges," the governor said.
Asked what he tells someone who says climate change is theoretical and questions the harm, Schwarzenegger told Pelley, "I always say, well there were people that were debating over if the world is a globe. They thought for a long time it was flat. And there's still people that think that they're flat. And there are people that still live in the Stone Age."
[THE ISSUE IS NOT WHETHER CLIMATE CHANGE IS THEORETICAL, BUT RATHER, WHETHER OR NOT IT IS SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN TO BE NONCYCLICAL & CAUSED BY NONCYCLICAL GLOBAL WARMING INDUCED PRIMARILY BY HUMAN ACTIVITIES].
"It all happened so fast they couldn't save one single one of those homes. Over 500 homes here were destroyed within hours," Schwarzenegger explained as they walked through charred remains.
"You know, there's been a lot of research that suggests that there are more fires and there are hotter fires because the fire season has been extended by climate change," Pelley remarked.
"Well, we have been doing some research in that, and we have seen the changes. We don't have a fire season anymore. It starts in the beginning of the year and goes all year around and so it has created, of course, big challenges," the governor said.
Asked what he tells someone who says climate change is theoretical and questions the harm, Schwarzenegger told Pelley, "I always say, well there were people that were debating over if the world is a globe. They thought for a long time it was flat. And there's still people that think that they're flat. And there are people that still live in the Stone Age."
[THE ISSUE IS NOT WHETHER CLIMATE CHANGE IS THEORETICAL, BUT RATHER, WHETHER OR NOT IT IS SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN TO BE NONCYCLICAL & CAUSED BY NONCYCLICAL GLOBAL WARMING INDUCED PRIMARILY BY HUMAN ACTIVITIES].
Schwarzenegger wants to revolutionize energy with aggressive limits on greenhouse gases. [HIDDEN TAXES ON THE LOW & MIDDLE CLASSES] In a little more than ten years, a third of California power is supposed to flow from renewables, like solar energy. And he wants to cut tailpipe emissions 30 percent in eight years.
Asked if it's the wrong time to switch the way America uses energy - in light of the economic emergency, Schwarzenegger said, "I think that there's never the wrong time. There's always the right time. I will argue the opposite. Because we have seen that the industries that are performing well in California, even right now in this economic decline, is green technology. It's really spectacular to see those manufacturers coming up to me and saying, 'Our business is booming,' while there's an economic decline. So, green technology's where it's at."
[WHAT 'BOOMING' BUSINESS? WHAT JOBS? PORT JOBS - i.e., THE UNLOADING, WAREHOUSING & TRANSPORTING OF, and ASSEMBLY JOBS - i.e., THE ASSEMBLY & INSTALLATION OF, IMPORTED SOLAR PANEL, WINDMILL & AUTO BATTERY COMPONENTS and COMPACT FLUORESCENT LIGHTBULBS?]
He'd like to turn greener faster, but he's been fighting the Bush White House and, ironically, environmentalists.
"You can't build a solar power plant in the Mojave Desert in California because there's concern about an endangered squirrel?" Pelley asked, referring to the attempts to meet the renewable power standards.
"Well first of all, let me just say the Mojave Desert is the best place to have a solar field because it is the most sun they have sun all year round, it's the best place but, there's some that want to hold it up because they think that it will endanger some animal life there that is going overboard," Schwarzenegger said. "Because the environmentalists are the first ones to say, 'Yes, we need renewable energy. We should get rid of, you know, using our energy from coal and from natural gas,' and all those kind of things. But then when you say, 'Okay, let's do renewable, let's go that,' 'Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold up, not so fast.'"
And when he tried to impose the cuts in tailpipe emissions, President Bush's EPA administrator Stephen Johnson said no. "I could tell in his eyes that he did not believe in it, that we would never get it, that he will create every obstacle. And the administration just had no interest in it," Schwarzenegger recalled.
So Schwarzenegger sued the administration. "What we wanted to do is just say 'Look, America, the United States, is not doing the right thing and is not moving this agenda forward, and is really trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or have an energy policy or an environmental policy. So, therefore we as a state are forced to create our own,'" he told Pelley.
He went as far as to create his own foreign policy. Last month, Schwarzenegger held a world summit on climate change in Beverly Hills.
He did what Washington would not do, signing an emissions declaration with government officials from the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, India and China. Then he took the delegates to the L.A. Auto Show, where they were no doubt impressed with the horsepower of his celebrity.
He owned the room, but in a sense he was behind enemy lines. The big three automakers had sued Schwarzenegger to stop cuts in tailpipe emissions. They lost. And he was here to grill them about their alternative fuel cars.
"I have been in Detroit in 2000 and have talked to the car manufacturers then to put hydrogen engines in the cars and start experimenting. And they said to me then, 'Well, this would take five to ten years to do something like that.' Well, that time has come now. Where are the cars?" Schwarzenegger questioned.
"When you came out in California with your stricter emissions standards, you know there were billboards all over Michigan which said, 'Arnold to Detroit: drop dead,'" Pelley remarked.
"Right, that's true. That was the best free publicity I could get. But actually I was not saying, 'Arnold to Detroit: drop dead,' I was just saying, 'Get off your butt,'" Schwarzenegger said.
Not many people know that Schwarzenegger personally invented the civilian Hummer. The maker of the military version told him that it could never be made street legal, so Schwarzenegger bought one and spent $100,000 of his money to show that it could be done.
[WE MUCH ADMIRE YOUR CAN-DO ATTITUDE, BUT LET'S TRY TO REMAIN TRUTHFUL TO THE PUBLIC].
Schwarzenegger’s action helped launch the brand that is the very symbol of greenhouse gas gluttony.
That original Humvee, which Schwarzenegger still occasionally uses to ride around Los Angeles, has now been modified to run on cooking oil. "You can literally go up to a restaurant and get cooking oil," he told Pelley.
Now he has re-invented the vehicle with green that's more than skin-deep. He has one variation that runs partly on hydrogen, and this one has an engine modified to run on bio fuel. "I mean, it runs, basically, on anything. Anything natural," he said, as he took Pelley for a ride in it.
His point is that trying to chase Americans out of their big cars, what he calls "guilt-trip environmentalism," has failed. "And my point was is keep all of the stuff that you like. But change the technology," Schwarzenegger explained. "So I started really pushing that agenda in a positive way. Look at the great things that we can do. We can turn this whole thing around. The damage that we have created over the last 100 years, we can undo that."
[DEAR GOVERNATOR, DOES THIS MEAN, AS RECENTLY REVEALED, THAT YOU ARE ENCOURAGING INCREASED IMPORTS OF MANUFACTURED RENEWABLE TECHNOLOGY COMPONENTS FOR WINDMILLS, SOLAR PANELS and AUTO BATTERIES FROM ASIA & EUROPE???]
[See: Holy Guacamole Batman! Those Electric Auto Battery Manufacturing Jobs You Promised Are NOT American GREEN, But Rather Foreign RED, BLUE & ORANGE!!, ITSSD Journal on Energy Security, at: http://itssdenergysecurity.blogspot.com/2008/12/holy-guacamole-batman-these-electric.html ; How Many New Obama Administration-Created American Jobs Will it Take to Change an Imported Chinese Compact Fluorescent Lightbulb?, ITSSD Journal on Energy Security, at: http://itssdenergysecurity.blogspot.com/2008/12/how-many-new-obama-administration.html ; How QUIXOTIC - US 'Green Collar Jobs' Now Include Servicing 'Outsourced' Manufactured Windmill IMports!!, ITSSD Journal on Energy Security, at: http://itssdenergysecurity.blogspot.com/2008/11/how-quixotic-us-green-collar-jobs-now.html ; OBAMA Deceives American Public: 'PUTS OTHER COUNTRIES FIRST' With 'Green Collar Jobs' SCAM That 'Outsources' Windmill Manufacturing, ITSSD Journal on Energy Security, at: http://itssdenergysecurity.blogspot.com/2008/09/itssd-reports-obama-deceives-american.html ].
This "have it all" philosophy leads some critics to say the governor sees green through rose-colored glasses, that he tends to underplay challenges involving cost and technology.
Pelley and the governor's drive ended where Schwarzenegger began, Venice Beach, where the body builders go. The cops came out with a picture that hangs in their station from back in the day when the future governor was Mr. Universe five times and Mr. Olympia seven times.
And he had a few tips, which were less about weight lifting than finding clever ways to plow though obstacles. The governor spotted while Pelley prepared to lift some weights. They were at a Venice Beach landmark, Muscle Beach, that Schwarzenegger helped make famous.
"And these are only 70s," Pelley remarked.
"But why so much weight?" Schwarzenegger replied.
"I usually do 75s," Pelley said.
"I mean, when you do it for the cameras you do only 50, so you take it easy. You don't kill yourself," Schwarzenegger replied, laughing.
Asked if that's the trick, Schwarzenegger said, "Oh yeah. Absolutely. I remember when I did this scene in 'Stay Hungry' at the squats with Sally Fields watching there. And I had to do it over and over again. And I had 225 pounds on it, as I learned very quickly, put on wooden plates."
"You're not telling me that's what you did in the movies?" Pelley asked.
"You can't. No, no, not me," Schwarzenegger said, laughing.
This is Schwarzenegger's 40th anniversary in America. Venice Beach is, in a sense, where he came ashore. Asked what he thought of America when he arrived in 1968, Schwarzenegger said, "You know, I felt that if there is such a thing as a before life and an afterlife, then definitely my before life I was an American. Because when I arrived here, when I got off the plane, I felt like I'm at home."
But now "home" is in trouble. California is the foreclosure capital, and unemployment is above eight percent. The governor proposed to close that budget deficit half with tax increases and half with budget cuts. Republicans and Democrats opposed him.
When 60 Minutes sat down with Schwarzenegger at the Capitol, he had just left the legislative leadership and he seemed in no mood. Before they got settled, Pelley was worried that the last thing the governor wanted to do was talk to him.
"I’m not sure that meeting went all that well. You seem pretty preoccupied. You got the 'Terminator look' on your face," Pelley remarked.
"It doesn't work on me. No psyching out," Schwarzenegger said, laughing. "It doesn't work."
"No, I was just being honest," Pelley said.
When the interview got going, Pelley asked about that morning's editorial in that most Republican of opinion pages, the Wall Street Journal.
Schwarzenegger had seen it.
"Savage. Savage. They said you were taxing and spending this beautiful state to ruin, to use their words. What do you think when you read that?" Pelley asked.
"I think this is part of the job, that you have people way on the left that will attack you for making cuts. You will have people way on the right that will attack you for your spending," the governor replied.
"If you read between the lines in the Wall Street Journal editorial, it's essentially asking, 'What kind of Republican are you?'" Pelley remarked.
"For me, the most important thing is, when I make a decision, is what is best for the people of California, and what is best for our economy, and what's best for the state, not what is best for my party. I'm not a party servant. I'm a public servant," Schwarzenegger said.
Schwarzenegger likes to call his way "post-partisan," and he just campaigned successfully through a controversial reform that makes traditionally Democratic or Republican legislative seats more competitive at election time.
But his approval rating has dropped from 60 percent two years ago to 40 percent now. Still, that's better than the legislature gets - 21 percent.
Running California means running the eighth largest economy in the world and with two years left as governor, Schwarzenegger will soon have to find an encore.
Being born in Austria would seem to disqualify him from the next political step. "Well, you're a man of no small ambition. If the Constitution was changed, you'd like to be president, wouldn't you?" Pelley asked.
"Yeah, absolutely," Schwarzenegger acknowledged. "I think that I am always a person that looks for the next big goal. And I love challenges. I always set goals that are so high, that are almost impossible to achieve. Because then, you're always hungry for climbing and climbing. Because it's always interesting. The climb is always interesting. When you get there you just have to pick another goal."
He's already won over the president-elect to his environmental goals. At Schwarzenegger’s environmental conference, Mr. Obama sent a video message endorsing the California plan and said under this administration, the US would adopt similar greenhouse gas reduction goals.
But now Schwarzenegger still has to head off that budget disaster - to find middle ground that no one else can see - and keep up the appearance that the climb is a joy. "People think show business was in Hollywood but I think Reagan was absolutely right, if he wouldn't have the training in acting this would have been a very difficult job and I think that's what it is, that's reality," Schwarzenegger said.
Produced by Henry Schuster
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/cal/la-na-climate20-2008nov20,0,4199014.story
California leads fight against climate change on global level
Gov. Schwarzenegger signs a pact with heads of other states and provinces to cut greenhouse emissions. 'We have got to do something worldwide here,' he says.
By Margot Roosevelt
The Los Angeles Times
November 20, 2008
California formally moved to spread its can-do global warming gospel around the world, signing a declaration Wednesday with 11 other U.S. states and provinces or states in five other countries to help them slash their greenhouse gas emissions.
Fighting climate change shouldn't just go "nation by nation," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told a climate summit in Beverly Hills attended by more than 700 delegates from 19 countries. It must go "province by province. . . . We have got to do something worldwide here," he said.
California's unusual state-level diplomacy comes as President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to invigorate U.S. participation in negotiations for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which took effect in 2005 -- and which the Bush administration declined to join.
Talks on a new climate treaty resume in Poland next month, and final agreement is expected to be signed in Copenhagen in December 2009. But success is far from assured as industrial nations, which have caused much of the world's global warming, battle with fast-growing developing nations such as China to determine who should cut emissions.
Regional leaders signing Wednesday's declaration said they would develop strategies for high-polluting industries in an effort to influence the talks. The signers included 12 U.S. governors and state or provincial representatives from Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia and India.
[FORTUNATELY, THESE REGIONAL LEADERS FAILED, AT LEAST FOR NOW. See: Hey, Yvo de Boer - Don't You Cry No More, No More, No More, No More, Cause Poznan Ain't Go'in Your Way!, ITSSD Journal on Energy Security, at: http://itssdenergysecurity.blogspot.com/2008/12/here-here-yvo-de-boer-please-dont-cry.html ].
California has developed more technical expertise in controlling planet-heating emissions than any U.S. state in the two years since it passed a law requiring its emissions to fall by about 15% in the next 12 years. And although the federal government has stalled in adopting any economy-wide climate legislation, the Golden State has forged ahead with renewable energy standards, automobile tailpipe regulations, efficiency incentives and forest carbon protocols.
[THIS IS HUMOROUS, BUT SAD. HOW CAN THE MERE PASSAGE OF AN UNPROVEN LAW IMPOSING COSTLY CARBON EMISSIONS CAPS REFLECT CALIFORNIA'S EXPERTISE IN CONTROLLING PLANET-HEATING EMISSIONS???]
"California is a little spot on the globe, but the influence we have on the rest of the world is enormous," Schwarzenegger told the conference, touting the "green jobs" that the state would produce from solar and other clean-technology energy.
The declaration sets in motion a process for the state's Air Resources Board, one of the world's oldest and most sophisticated pollution control agencies, to share engineering and policy expertise with regions such as Brazil's Amazon states and Indonesia's forested provinces on how to measure and control greenhouse gases.
China, India, Brazil and other fast-developing nations have resisted caps on their emissions.
"The industrial countries that have been spewing out the most greenhouse gases have a higher responsibility to act," said Gov. Ana Julia de Vasconcelos Carpa of the Brazilian state of Para.
The declaration sets in motion a process for the state's Air Resources Board, one of the world's oldest and most sophisticated pollution control agencies, to share engineering and policy expertise with regions such as Brazil's Amazon states and Indonesia's forested provinces on how to measure and control greenhouse gases.
China, India, Brazil and other fast-developing nations have resisted caps on their emissions.
"The industrial countries that have been spewing out the most greenhouse gases have a higher responsibility to act," said Gov. Ana Julia de Vasconcelos Carpa of the Brazilian state of Para.
About 20% of the world's annual carbon emissions come from burning forests in Brazil, Indonesia and other tropical nations. In an international carbon market, as envisioned in California's global warming law, U.S. industries could pay to preserve tropical forest as a cheaper way to meet their own global warming targets. It is a source of income that foreign leaders are eager to tap.
[THIS IS OTHERWISE REFERRED TO AS THE 'CLEAN DEVELOPMENT MECHANISM' OF THE U.N. KYOTO PROTOCOL].
Gov. Jim Doyle of Wisconsin, one of the signers of the agreement, said that his heavily forested state also would share research with the tropical nations. "We have a joint interest in how the carbon market moves forward," he said. "We want to ensure that forest lands and their facility in capturing carbon receive appropriate credit. This will be a big political fight in this country and around the world."
Tropical deforestation, which was excluded from the emissions rules in the Kyoto Protocol, is expected to be incorporated in the new treaty. But how the developing nations are compensated by wealthy nations for not burning down their forests is far from resolved.
With California and other U.S. states facing severe fiscal restraints as the economy worsens, nonprofit organizations including the Climate Group, Conservation International and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation have pledged funds to support working groups and draft position papers for states and provinces that signed Wednesday's pact.
"Everyone wishes they could just say, 'I'm going to protect my forest, so give me money,' " said Peter Seligmann, chief executive of Conservation International. "But we have to verify that any commodity is real. Now these regions are linking with California, the eighth largest economy in the world, in an effort to create a verifiable source of carbon credits. That is huge."
[THAT IS ALSO VERY DIFFICULT TO DO. SEVERAL CARBON CREDIT VERIFICATION FIRMS HAVE LOST THEIR ACCREDITATION WITH THE UNITED NATIONS DUE TO QUESTIONABLE PRACTICES.]
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http://site.governorsglobalclimatesummit.org/uploads/FINAL-Governors_Summit_Declaration_11.18.08_with_signatures.pdf
Memorandum of Understanding to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation (REDD)
States from the Federative Republic of Brazil and Indonesia representing the largest tropically forested states of the world, signed agreements with American States [California, Illinois & Wisconsin] to work cooperatively to promote and develop joint REDD programs.
Amapá, Brazil - http://site.governorsglobalclimatesummit.org/uploads/MOU.Amapa-Brazil_Signed_111808.pdf
Pará, Brazil - http://site.governorsglobalclimatesummit.org/uploads/MOU.Para-Brazil_Signed_111808.pdf
Amazonas, Brazil - http://site.governorsglobalclimatesummit.org/uploads/MOU.Amazonas-Brazil_Signed_111808.pdf
Mato Grasso, Brazil - http://site.governorsglobalclimatesummit.org/uploads/MOU.Mato_Grasso-Brazil_Signed_111808.pdf
Aceh, Indonesia - http://site.governorsglobalclimatesummit.org/uploads/MOU.Aceh-Indonesia_Signed_111808.pdf
Papua, Indonesia - http://site.governorsglobalclimatesummit.org/uploads/MOU.Papua-Indonesia_Signed_111808.pdf
[A REVIEW OF THESE AGREEMENTS REVEALS, GENERALLY, THAT THEY ARE INTENDED TO PROVIDE CALIFORNIA, ILLINOIS & WISCONSIN GREENHOUSE GAS-EMITTING COMPANIES WITH THE ABILITY TO OFFSET EMISSIONS IN EXCESS OF THE LIMITS IMPOSED BY NEW CALIFORNIA, ILLINOIS AND/OR WISCONSIN GHG EMISSIONS CAPS WITH CREDITS EARNED FROM AFFORESTATION, REFORESTATION &/OR OTHER APPROVED FOREST MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES/PROJECTS UNDERTAKEN BY SUCH COMPANIES WITHIN THESE FOREIGN COUNTRY PROVINCES].
[ONE SET OF STATED GOALS IS "TO REDUCE GHG EMISSIONS FROM DEFORESTATION & LAND DEGRADATION, and TO SEQUESTER ADDITIONAL CARBON THROUGH RESTORATION & REFORESTATION OF DEGRADED LANDS AND FORESTS, and THROUGH IMPROVED FOREST MANAGEMENT PROCEDURES". See: Article 2(a)].
[ANOTHER SET OF STATED GOALS IS "TO DEVELOP RULES TO ENSURE THAT FOREST EMISSIONS, REDUCTIONS AND SEQUESTRATIONS, FROM ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN AT THE SUB-NATIONAL LEVEL" WILL COMPLY WITH "EACH PARTY'S STATE, PROVINCIAL, REGIONAL, NATIONAL OR INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS, SUCH AS THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA'S GLOBAL WARMING SOLUTIONS ACT (ASSEMBLY BILL 32), MIDWESTERN GREENHOUSE GAS ACCORD, WESTERN CLIMATE INITIATIVE, REGIONAL GREENHOUSE GAS INITIATIVE, OR OTHER INITIATIVES". See: Article 2(b)].
[IN EXCHANGE FOR PROVIDING SAID COMPANIES THE ABILITY TO EARN SUCH CREDITS FROM PROPERLY MANAGED FORESTS LOCATED WITHIN THESE COUNTRY PROVINCES, THE STATES OF CALIFORNIA, ILLINOIS & WISCONSIN WILL PROVIDE FOREST MANAGEMENT, CERTIFICATION & VERIFICATION TECHNICAL SKILLS TRAINING , AND WILL FACILITATE THE TRANSFER OF OTHER THAN PATENT, COPYRIGHT or TRADE SECRET-PROTECTED RENEWABLE ENERGY & RELATED TECHNOLOGIES BY SUCH COMPANIES TO, AND WILL MAKE GOVERNMENT INVESTMENTS WITHIN, THESE FOREIGN COUNTRY PROVINCES . See: Articles 3 and 7].
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http://site.governorsglobalclimatesummit.org/uploads/FINAL-Governors_Summit_Declaration_11.18.08_with_signatures.pdf
Global Climate Solutions Declaration [Political & Legally NONbinding]
[THIS AGREEMENT WAS ENTERED INTO BETWEEN THE FOLLOWING U.S. STATES:
CALIFORNIA; COLORADO; FLORIDA; ILLINOIS; KANSAS; MARYLAND; MASSACHUSETTS; MICHIGAN; NEW YORK; OREGON; UTAH; WASHINGTON; WISCONSIN,
AND
AMAPA, BRAZIL; AMAZONIA, BRAZIL; GROSSO, BRAZIL; MATO, BRAZIL; PARA BRAZIL; BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, MANITOBA, CANADA; ONTARIO, CANADA; QUEBEC, CANADA; KARNATAKA STATE, INDIA; ACEH, INDONESIA; JAKARTA, INDONESIA; BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO; SANOVA, MEXICO.]
[A REVIEW OF THIS DOCUMENT WILL REVEAL THAT IT IS AN EFFORT TO ESTABLISH A 'STATE-PROVINCE PARTNERSHIP', IN FURTHERANCE OF INTERNATIONAL EFFORTS, PURSUANT TO THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE, TO PROMOTE THE FULFILLMENT OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE UNITED NATIONS INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE CONCERNING THE NEED TO ACHIEVE QUANTIFIABLE GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSION REDUCTIONS. EFFORTS WILL BE FOCUSED ON REDUCING GHG EMISSIONS IN THE FOLLOWING ECONOMICALLY PRODUCTIVE INDUSTRY SECTORS: FORESTRY, AGRICULTURE, CEMENT, IRON and STEEL, ALUMINUM, ENERGY & TRANSPORTATION. See: p. 1].
[THESE EFFORTS WILL ENTAIL PROMOTION OF "INVESTMENTS IN SPECIFIC ACTIVITIES, INCLUDING TRANSFER OF CLEAN ENERGY RESEARCH, AND ASSISTANCE WITH DEVELOPMENT, DEMONSTRATION & DEPLOYMENT OF CLIMATE-FRIENDLY TECHNOLOGIES, PARTICULARLY IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES." THEY WILL ALSO ENTAIL "ACCELERAT[ING] CAPACITY-BUILDING EFFORTS TARGETED TOWARD KEY SECTORS OF THE[IR] ECONOMIES... See: p.1].
[THESE EFFORTS WILL ALSO FOCUS ON FOSTERING JOINT RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT, LABORATORY and OTHER ACADEMIC, SCIENTIFIC & TECHNICAL INFORMATION EXCHANGES. See: p.2]
[LASTLY, THESE EFFORTS WILL ALSO "FOCUS RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT and DEPLOYMENT ACTIVITIES ON ENERGY EFFICIENCY and RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES, ZERO- and LOW CARBON ELECTRICITY GENERATION and FUELS, IMPROVED MOBILITY THROUGH BETTER PLANNING and TRANSPORATION INFRASTRUCTURE, BIOLOGICAL CARBON SEQUESTRATION, CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS and ADAPTATION"... See: p.2].
[A REVIEW OF THIS DOCUMENT WILL REVEAL THAT IT IS AN EFFORT TO ESTABLISH A 'STATE-PROVINCE PARTNERSHIP', IN FURTHERANCE OF INTERNATIONAL EFFORTS, PURSUANT TO THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE, TO PROMOTE THE FULFILLMENT OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE UNITED NATIONS INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE CONCERNING THE NEED TO ACHIEVE QUANTIFIABLE GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSION REDUCTIONS. EFFORTS WILL BE FOCUSED ON REDUCING GHG EMISSIONS IN THE FOLLOWING ECONOMICALLY PRODUCTIVE INDUSTRY SECTORS: FORESTRY, AGRICULTURE, CEMENT, IRON and STEEL, ALUMINUM, ENERGY & TRANSPORTATION. See: p. 1].
[THESE EFFORTS WILL ENTAIL PROMOTION OF "INVESTMENTS IN SPECIFIC ACTIVITIES, INCLUDING TRANSFER OF CLEAN ENERGY RESEARCH, AND ASSISTANCE WITH DEVELOPMENT, DEMONSTRATION & DEPLOYMENT OF CLIMATE-FRIENDLY TECHNOLOGIES, PARTICULARLY IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES." THEY WILL ALSO ENTAIL "ACCELERAT[ING] CAPACITY-BUILDING EFFORTS TARGETED TOWARD KEY SECTORS OF THE[IR] ECONOMIES... See: p.1].
[THESE EFFORTS WILL ALSO FOCUS ON FOSTERING JOINT RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT, LABORATORY and OTHER ACADEMIC, SCIENTIFIC & TECHNICAL INFORMATION EXCHANGES. See: p.2]
[LASTLY, THESE EFFORTS WILL ALSO "FOCUS RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT and DEPLOYMENT ACTIVITIES ON ENERGY EFFICIENCY and RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES, ZERO- and LOW CARBON ELECTRICITY GENERATION and FUELS, IMPROVED MOBILITY THROUGH BETTER PLANNING and TRANSPORATION INFRASTRUCTURE, BIOLOGICAL CARBON SEQUESTRATION, CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS and ADAPTATION"... See: p.2].
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[IT WOULD APPEAR THAT THE GOVERNATOR and SOME OF HIS COLLEAGUES, HAVE BACKED DOWN A BIT FROM THEIR PREVIOUSLY AMBITIOUS FOREIGN POLICY FORAYS]:
["In some cases, individual states and/or regional groups of states have entered into or otherwise participated in international initiatives with foreign national provincial and/or municipal governments.145 To the extent that such activities conflict with federal policy and influence, substantially affect, or otherwise undermine U.S. foreign relations, including foreign commerce, with such nations, it is arguable that such state initiatives intrude upon the plenary authority of the President, subject to the Treaty Power of the Congress, to conduct foreign affairs on behalf of the nation, not to mention the authority of Congress to regulate commerce with foreign nations.146 In that case, such initiatives may be susceptible to challenge under Sections 8 and 10 of Article I, and Clauses 1 and 2 in Section 2 of Article II of the U.S. Constitution.147
The states, however, have taken the legal position that they have the constitutional right to enter into executive agreements with foreign nations, provinces, and/or cities because they have always done so pursuant to the powers reserved to the states by the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution’s Bill of Rights.148 In addition, they have argued that, in any event, their activities affect neither U.S. foreign relations with those nation-states nor U.S. foreign policy, including foreign commerce, generally conducted by the President and/or Congress through executive agreements and/or formal treaties.149"
...In addition to establishing statewide GHG emissions reduction targets by executive order in 2005,447 during January 2007, Schwarzenegger signed an executive order directing California agencies to develop the world’s first low carbon fuel standard (LCFS).448 Previously, the California Governor had executed executive agreements with foreign nations to target GHG emissions.449 In 2006, Schwarzenegger signed separate agreements with the United Kingdom and Sweden to foster cooperation in combating climate change and promoting renewable energy. While the Sweden agreement was limited to technology exchanges aimed at promoting biogas and other renewable fuels,450 the United Kingdom agreement borders on a treaty to reduce GHG emissions. The United Kingdom agreement commits both parties to enhanced scientific collaboration in developing new energy technologies, assessing regional climate change impact and the economic effects of climate and mitigation policies, as well as cooperation in implementing “market-based” mechanisms addressing climate change.451
During March 2007, Governor Schwarzenegger’s aides publicly expressed his intention to
"link [California’s] planned emissions trading system to the European Union’s market, boosting efforts to build a global mechanism to fight climate change. . . . 'Our governor has asked us to design a market that could be compatible with the ETS, the European trading system,' [said] Linda Adams, secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency".452
Apparently, a member from Schwarzenegger’s cabinet had been sent to Brussels to meet with officials from the European Commission and European Parliament in order to learn more about the EU emissions trading system.453 This effort recently culminated, during October 2007, in California’s entering into an international agreement with a group of other U.S. states (including the other members of the Western Climate Initiative—discussed later), Canadian provinces, and a coalition of European Union countries to launch the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP).454
...New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine and former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer...[ALSO] traveled to Brussels in October 2007 to attend a political summit with European leaders for the specific purpose of executing an international carbon emissions trading agreement (the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP)) with the European Commission, United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal, France, Netherlands, New Zealand, and Norway."471
[See: Lawrence A. Kogan, The Extra-WTO Precautionary Principle: One European 'Fashion' Export the United States Can Do Without, 17 Temple Political & Civil Rights Law Review 491, 528-529, 574-575, 578 at: http://www.itssd.org/Kogan%2017%5b1%5d.2.pdf ].
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