Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger liked what he saw and heard from the tax commission when commissioners handed over their report to him. He gave the proposal a thumbs up and said he’d sign the plan into law immediately if he could. However, those thumbs were way up and his energy was much higher when he addressed the gathering at the Governors’ Climate Summit 2 in Los Angeles, yesterday,
To be sure, there were stark differences in the two events. At the climate summit the governor was playing to an admiring audience of world and environmental leaders while at the press conference he was talking to a bunch of grumpy reporters who he sees on a regular basis.
The environmental extravaganza plays into his grassroots stirring of a “Green Revolution”, as he called it, for which he has received international acclaim. With the tax proposal he faces an unruly legislature, which will demand changes and then most likely sink the whole proposal. He’s been down that rocky road too many times before to think its any fun.
So his focus on the climate change efforts will continue to be enthusiastic and consuming. His three day conference is subtitled the Road to Copenhagen. In that city, world leaders will attend an international conference on climate change in December to discuss new policy strategies. The governor announced he intends to be there.
The governor’s plan is to start a revolution on the climate change front from below to influence national policies. Subnationals was a new term repeated frequently during the first day of the conference to identify states or regions or cities that will push the environmental agenda in hopes of influencing national governments to take action.
In listening to conference speakers express the hope that subnational governments will create new ideas of how to improve the environment, you could hear the echo of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis’ famous line that the states are the laboratories of democracy.
The governor wants the movement to effect climate change to be a grassroots affair. While national governments are debating the issues, Schwarzenegger said, the subnational governments are taking action. He said the national governments would recognize what the subnationals are doing and follow their lead.
The governor said it would take ‘political courage’ to get things done on the environmental front. He used the same turn of phrase the day before in referring to the tax reform proposal. A little political courage and we will have more green – in the environment and money.
Given the reaction to the two ideas, take some of that money and bet on the environment plan. It seems more likely to happen.