Jolly Green Giant?

27 June 2006 |permalink | email article

Arnold Schwarzenegger, in the latest effort to burnish his environmental credentials before the fall election, continues to distance himself from the White House with a rebuff to the powerful Republican head of the House Resources Committee over the issue of offshore drilling.

Rep. Richard Pombo of Tracy recently asked the governor, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, to back his bill that would let states decide whether to authorize oil and gas rigs in federal waters up to 100 miles off shore.

Schwarzenegger replied in a pungent letter that new drilling off the California coast would be “unacceptable.”

“This moratorium has been in place for 25 years and enjoys widespread support from the people of California.”

Pombo, financially linked to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff before distancing himself in recent months, fired back.

He compared the governor unfavorably with anti-drilling Florida Gov. Jeb Bush who backs the bill, expected to be approved by the House this week but facing a much tougher battle in the Senate.

A year ago this month, Schwarzenegger unveiled a plan to combat global warming by setting goals for reducing California’s emission of greenhouse gases at a U.N. World Environmental Day Conference, the first in the U.S., and not attended by a major Bush administration official.

The governor’s environmental credentials have been questioned in the past, notably because of his ownership of a fleet of gas-guzzling Hummers, the civilian version of the military Humvee.

Last June, state Treasurer Phil Angelides, now Schwarzenegger’s Democratic opponent, questioned whether the governor’s “Global Action Plan” is really “action, action, action” or nothing more than “talk, talk, talk.”

Let the new battle over Big Green begin!

 

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