Schwarzenegger Criticizes Bush White House On Environmental Policy (VIDEO)
Arnold Schwarzenegger may have more in common on his key issue - the environment - with Senator Barack Obama than the men he's endorsed, John McCain. And Obama has noticed this, giving the California governor wide praise, fueling speculation that Arnold might end up some sort of "energy/environment czar" for an Obama White House. The matter came up on today's This Week With George Stephanopoulos:
[WATCH.]
Confronted with the news that the Bush administration planned no further activity from the Environmental Protection Agency on global warming this year, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger took a resigned, almost cynical attitude - offering the Bush White House some backhanded criticism, saying that if Bush had promised to do something, he "would have thought it was bogus anyway." Schwarzenegger noted that California has attracted numerous partners to what he described as a pioneering effort from the State of California to curb the effects of global warming, but that the Federal government "was not one of them."
As for the issue of off-shore drilling - which John McCain, who won Schwarzenegger's endorsement, has proposed - the governor basically said, "thanks but no thanks": "We in California say thank you for giving us the rights, but, no, we have no interest in doing offshore drilling. We want to protect our coast." The Governor went on to say: "Let me make it clear, anyone that tells you drilling, nuclear power, alternative fuels, fuel cells, solar, all of those things will bring down the price right now, I think is pulling wool over your eyes, because we know that all of those will take at least ten years." But the only person saying that is John McCain!
[WATCH.]
STEPHANOPOULOS: Yet, we read, front page of The Washington Post this morning. President Bush's EPA is going to take no more actions this year during his presidency to stop global warming emissions.
SCHWARZENEGGER: Well, to be honest with you, if they would have done something this year, I would have thought it was bogus anyway.STEPHANOPOULOS: Why?
SCHWARZENEGGER: Because you don't change global warming and you don't really have an effect by doing something six months before you leave office. I mean that --
STEPHANOPOULOS: Doesn't every bit help?
SCHWARZENEGGER: It doesn't sound to me believable, or the sincerity that -- I think that the way they've done it is much better, because it just really means basically this administration did not believe in global warming, or they didn't believe that they should do anything about it, since China is not doing anything about it, and since India is not willing to do the same thing, so why should we do the same thing. You know, that's not how we put the man on the moon. We did not say let everyone else do the same thing, then we would do it. We said we want to be the pioneers. We want to be out there in front. And we're out there in front when it comes to stem cell research. We're out in front when it comes to high technology and bio technology, with our universitry systems. I think we have a good opportunity to do the same thing with fighting global warming. That's why I'm very happy that California is in the forefront, we are very aggressive. We made a commitment to roll back our greenhouse gas emissions to the 1990 level. And because of we're being the most important state in the union, we were able to reach out and get a lot of partners to join us, many other states join us, provinces of other countries like Canada has joined us. we made agreements with European countries. we didn't wait for Washington. i just felt that administration and Federal government, they've been terrific partners in a lot of things for us, and we've worked together very well. But environmental issues was not one of them.
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First Posted: 07-13-08 02:19 PM | Updated: 07-21-08 05:12 AM