POZNAN, Poland, December 8, 2008 (ENS) – Green rules and regulations will help both the climate and the economy, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today told UN delegates gathered in Poland at The Climate Group’s second annual States and Regions Climate Leaders Summit.

“States and provinces have long been at the forefront of developing green technologies and protecting our economy so that they are setting great examples for our federal counterparts,” the California governor said via video message.

His audience was international environment ministers and regional government leaders from around the world, who are in Poznan for the annual United Nations climate conference. They are negotiating a successor agreement on curbing greenhouse gas emissions to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Chaired by Premier Mike Rann of South Australia, the Climate Group Summit is intended for sub-national government leaders who have taken action on climate change as well as a select group of finance and low carbon technology industry leaders.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger addresses climate
leaders via video. (Photo courtesy
The Climate Group)

Governor Schwarzenegger said the financial troubles affecting global, national, and state economies are no excuse to stall on taking steps to combat climate change.

“Of course, there are some people who say that we can’t afford the fight against global warming while our economies are down, but the exact opposite is true,” he said. “The green rules and regulations that will help save our planet will also revive our economies.”

Governor Schwarzenegger said he plans to travel to next year’s UN climate conference in Copenhagen, Denmark to support President-elect Barack Obama’s recent pledge that under his administration the U.S. government will match efforts of states and other nations leading the fight against climate change.

The state of California is the world’s fifth largest economy and the world’s 12th biggest emitter of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

Steve Howard, CEO of The Climate Group, said, “More of the world’s states and regions must become laboratories for low carbon development. The window of opportunity for our world leaders to break the deadlock around a new global climate deal is closing. Tomorrow’s global economy cannot afford any crisis of climate leadership today.”

The Climate Group is an independent not-for-profit organization founded in 2004, working internationally with government and business leaders to accelerate a low carbon economy.

California is this week finalizing work on implementing its Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, AB32, which is aimed at cutting state emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

The new law is estimated to generate US$4 billion in income; increase Gross Regional Product by US$60 billion; and create 103,000 new jobs over the same period.

The governor today said dozens of businesses have voiced “enthusiastic support” for California’s proposed green laws, saying, “Study after study has shown that our approach will save consumers money, create hundreds of thousands of new jobs and create billions in new payroll.”

Discussions at the Climate Group Summit aim to foster strategic partnerships in the areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy, low carbon technology deployment, fiscal policy and land-use initiatives in the forests, water, and agriculture sectors.

The Climate Group Summit will conclude with a statement highlighting the work of sub-national governments and low carbon technology leaders which will be delivered to the Secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change as a model of cooperation for international negotiations.

Watch Governor Schwarzenegger’s address to The Climate Group’s State and Regional Climate Summit here [www.theclimategroup.org].

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FONTANA, California, December 1, 2008 (ENS) – The roof of a distribution warehouse in Fontana is now covered with 33,700 advanced thin-film solar panels, making it the largest single rooftop solar photovoltaic array in California and the nation’s largest solar installation program by a utility.

Southern California Edison unveiled the completed solar roof today as the first of its proposed 150 solar photovoltaic installations on Southern California commercial rooftops.

The $875 million project could eventually cover two square miles of existing commercial roofs with 250 million watts of peak generating capacity – equivalent to building several utility-scale solar power plants, the company said.

Ted Craver, Edison International chairman and CEO, said, “We are driving solar technology forward and identifying creative new ways to integrate solar power into the electricity grid. A program of this scale could transform solar generation, helping bring costs down and providing us with another important way to meet the environmental challenges of the future.”

Workers install thin-film solar panels on the
roof of a Fontana distribution warehouse.
(Photo courtesy Edison International)

The 600,000 square foot Fontana distribution warehouse roof facility now generates enough power during peak output conditions to power 1,300 Inland Empire homes.

“Here in California, we are taking action to protect the environment by passing laws and setting standards and our companies and entrepreneurs are rising to the challenge,” said Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who attended the unveiling of the solar rooftop facility in Fontana. “Projects like this one show the world you can protect the environment and also pump up the economy, and I am proud to say it is happening right here in California.”

Southern California Edison officials today announced the location of their next solar installation site. The utility will begin construction soon atop a 458,000 square-foot industrial building in Chino, owned by the Multi-Employer Property Trust.

The solar panel supplier for the Fontana installation, First Solar of Tempe, Arizona, is also the winning bidder for the utility’s second installation.

“This pilot program is sited in the high peak load areas and will provide efficiencies to the grid while creating hundreds of jobs in California,” said John Carrington, First Solar executive vice president of global marketing and business development.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is supporting the project through the expansion of its solar installation apprentice training program.

The program will provide a new generation source to areas where customer demand is rising. The solar modules will feed electricity back into the grid. They can be connected directly and quickly to the nearest neighborhood circuit while major new renewable energy transmission lines are being built.

And the output of solar panels generally matches peak customer demand – lower in the morning and evening, higher in the afternoon.

SCE’s commercial rooftop project was prompted by advances in solar technology that reduce the cost of installed photovoltaic generation to half that of current similar installations.

The solar panels are made of materials that convert sunlight directly into electricity through a chemical process.

Thin semiconductor layers form an electric field, positive on one side and negative on the other side. When sunlight strikes the semiconductor, electrons are knocked loose from the atoms of the material, creating the current. Wires are attached to the positive and negative sides to carry the electricity from the solar cell to the device to be powered.

With its solar rooftop program, the utility hopes to fill a gap it has observed in current rooftop solar projects in the state – mid-range installations of one to two megawatts.

SCE’s solar project also is designed to supplement the Go Solar California campaign, which provides incentives to encourage Californians to install solar projects by 2017.

The SCE program supports the state’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which requires the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, as well as complementing California’s renewable portfolio standard, the goal that 20 percent of state’s electricity be generated with renewable energy.

Last month Governor Schwarzenegger signed an executive order to streamline California’s renewable energy project approval process and announced his plans to propose expansion of the state’s renewable portfolio standard to 33 percent renewable power by 2020.

The utility received its first regulatory response to the commercial rooftop solar project on September 18, 2008, when the California Public Utilities Commission authorized the recording of costs for the first three installations while SCE awaits regulatory review and response to the entire project due in March 2009.

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LOS ANGELES, California, November 18, 2008 (ENS) – In Los Angeles today, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger welcomed hundreds of attendees from more than 50 states, provinces and countries to the Governors’ Global Climate Summit. At the end of their two-day meeting, participants are expected to sign a declaration outlining their plans for turning climate goals into action.

The summit has already led to a signed agreement between U.S. governors and governors from Brazil and Indonesia to reduce forestry-related greenhouse gas emissions. It is the first state-to-state, sub-national agreement focused on reducing emissions from deforestation and land degradation.

“Tropical deforestation accounts for 20 percent of all human-caused carbon emissions in the world, and the governors signing these MOUs with us manage more than 60 percent of the world’s tropical forest lands,” Governor Schwarzenegger said.

“With this agreement, we are focusing our collective efforts on the problem and requiring our states to jointly develop rules, incentives and tools to ensure reduced emissions from deforestation and land degradation,” Schwarzenegger said. “We are also sending a strong message that this issue should be front and center during negotiations for the next global agreement on climate change.”

Clearing the Amazon rainforest in the Middle
Land, State of Para, Brazil, 2004. (Photo
© Greenpeace/ Alberto Cesar)

The agreement commits the U.S. States of California, Illinois and Wisconsin to work with the governors of six states and provinces within Indonesia and Brazil to help slow and stop tropical deforestation, the cutting and burning of trees to convert land to grow crops and raise livestock, and land degradation through joint projects and incentive programs.

It was signed by Governor Antônio Waldez Góes da Silva, Amapa, Brazil; Governor Eduardo Braga, Amazonas, Brazil; Governor Blario Maggi, Mato Grosso, Brazil; Governor Ana Júla de Vasconcelos Carepa, Para, Brazil; Governor Yusof Irwandi, Aceh, Indonesia; and Governor Barnamas Suebu, Papua, Indonesia.

“There is scientific consensus that the planet is close to a ‘tipping point,’ where continued growth in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases will result in successively larger disruptions of global biogeochemical, ecological, economic and social systems,” summit organizers say in a statement introducing the two-day event. “The development of a strong action plan and a global consensus around a post-Kyoto climate accord will be critical if the world hopes to avoid the most catastrophic impacts from climate change.”

The summit is intended to create opportunities for consensus on climate issues ahead of next month’s UN climate change conference in Poland where governments will work towards a climate accord to take effect after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

Four U.S. governors who are working to curb climate change in their own states are acting as co-hosts – Florida Governor Charlie Crist, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius and Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger opens
the Governor’s Global Climate Summit.
(Photos courtesy Office of the Governor)

Governor Schwarzenegger says the summit is rooted in the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which made California the first state to impose a cap on all greenhouse gas emissions.

“When California passed its global warming law two years ago, we were out there on an island, so we started forming partnerships everywhere we could,” the governor said. “We teamed up with Great Britain, the Canadian provinces, the Western and Northeastern states and with states like those of my co hosts-Illinois, Florida, Kansas, Wisconsin and more. And right here, for the first time, we have officials from China, India, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia and across the world in the same summit, working toward the same goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and growing green economies in our own backyards.”

Following the governor’s remarks, participants saw a pre-recorded video message from President-elect Barack Obama.

“Few challenges facing America – and the world – are more urgent than combating climate change,” Obama said. “Many of you are working to confront this challenge, but too often, Washington has failed to show the same kind of leadership. That will change when I take office.”

Obama will not take office until January 20, 2009, so he will not attend the meeting in Poland, but he has asked members of Congress who are attending the conference as observers to report back to him on what they learn there.

Obama’s approach meets with the approval of Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. “This is exactly the kind of leadership the country and the world have been waiting for,” she said. “President-elect Obama’s statement makes clear that he’s ready to roll up his sleeves and deliver the action that is needed to protect our climate, our economy, and our national security. He is setting the right goals and choosing the right policies.”

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, the Governors’ Summit is providing an opportunity for collaboration and sharing of views.

The Summit emphasizes a sectoral approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions with sector-specific breakout sessions focusing on specific actions in the forestry; cement, iron, steel and aluminum; energy; and transportation sectors. Together, these sectors account for the vast majority of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Today, officials from China, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia and the European Union shared sectoral panels with NGOs such as the Nature Conservancy and the Climate Group as well as energy companies like BP America and Pacific Gas & Electric.

Participants at the Governors’ Global Climate Summit

Participants heard Leon Panetta, former White House chief of staff and co-chair of the Joint Ocean Commission outline ocean policy priorities for the incoming Obama administration and Democratic-controlled Congress.

Panetta urged the new administration to establish a coherent national ocean policy, improve federal coordination of ocean science and resource management, and invest in ocean science to better understand and predict climate change and its impacts on oceans and coastal economies.

Tomorrow, the day will begin with a message from former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and will feature a dialogue among the governors and world leaders on what responses the climate challenge has evoked.

“Florida’s rapid progress has been possible only through partnership agreements with the United Kingdom and Germany, and with the help of my good friend, Governor Schwarzenegger,” Florida Governor Charlie Crist said. “Progress comes only as we work together – not at the expense of future economic growth – but as a necessity for the future prosperity of all nations and states.”

“This Summit is an opportunity to strengthen important relationships with business and government officials nationally and internationally and develop climate change strategies that will save us money, create jobs, help secure our world and improve our air and water,” Wisconsin Governor Doyle said.

“There is an incredible opportunity here to get our nation’s economy back on track by creating green jobs and becoming a world leader in the development of clean energy technologies,” Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius said. “In Kansas, our farms and fields can produce tomorrow’s energy through biofuels and clean, renewable wind. Rural America is going to play an important part in securing energy independence for our nation.”

“Illinois has been a leader in the Midwest and nationally in developing innovative strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change,” Illinois Governor Blagojevich said. “Playing a leading role in the Governors’ Summit will give us a chance to meet with world leaders and to learn from each other about how to most effectively tackle this urgent global issue and accelerate the transition to a low carbon society.”

Showcasing the economic success of California’s environmental leadership, the Governors’ Summit features more than 30 clean-tech companies displaying green technologies including electric cars, solar-powered flashlights and non-toxic cleaning products during the two-day Climate Solutions Showcase.

To ensure that the summit leaves no carbon footprint, EcoSecurities is donating voluntary carbon offsets from its portfolio to neutralize 100 percent of the emissions associated with the event. The offsets being used are high quality voluntary emission reduction credits, selected to honor visiting country representatives, as well as highlight the first two agricultural methane projects listed by the California Climate Action Registry.

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LIVERMORE, California, November 11, 2008 (ENS) – Forty miles east of San Francisco, scientists are constructing a miniature Sun within a stadium-sized building at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Called the National Ignition Facility, it will use 192 of the world’s most power lasers to ignite a hydrogen fuel pellet, fusing its atoms, and producing enormous amounts of energy from that fusion.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Secretary of State George Shultz toured the facility on Monday. First, they received a private, classified briefing by lab director George Miller on the lab’s operations, which includes stewardship of the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile.

The lab broke ground on the National Ignition Facility in 1997, and it is now 99 percent completed. It is scheduled to begin operations in March 2009.

Laboratory Director George Miller told the visitors that the National Ignition Facility “represents the culmination of more than 50 years by the scientists of the world to achieve fusion in the laboratory” adding that it will produce “the possibility of limitless clean energy.”

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, center,
tours the National Ignition Facility with George
Schultz, far right. (Photo courtesy Lawrence
Livermore National Lab)

The laser facility has multiple missions – research to support the nuclear weapons stockpile, research into the origins of the universe, and research to help pave the way for the future use of fusion energy.

The lab’s first ignition attempt is set for 2010, with a goal of reaching nuclear fusion in 2011.

Governor Schwarzenegger described what is expected to happen when the 192 beams of light enter the hydrogen target the size of a pencil eraser.

“The impact will unleash a burst of fusion energy up to 500 billion watts of power and, just to show you what this is, generating the power of the United States and multiply that by a thousand. So that’s what we are talking about, the energy this will create,” the governor said.

California’s fast-growing population needs not just more energy but more clean energy to fight global warming and keep the environment clean. The fusion energy that National Ignition Facility is expected to produce creates no greenhouse gases.

“What’s most exciting about it is the potential to revolutionize our energy future,” Schwarzenegger said. “Scientists here will work to harness that fusion energy and turn it into a viable long-term nuclear power source. And I have said many times that nuclear power ought to be part of our future energy supply, assuming that it is safe and the waste issue is addressed.”

“If successful, this new endeavor, called The Life Program, would generate an endless amount of megawatts of carbon-free power – and that’s the important thing, of carbon-free power – but without the drawbacks of the conventional nuclear plants, which means that there is no risk of a reactor melting down or anything like this,” the governor said. “The nuclear waste is minimized. In fact, it would even replace or reduce existing nuclear stockpiles, since live engines can burn nuclear waste.”

Schwarzenegger said he expects that within 10 to 12 years a fusion energy demonstration project will be up and running. “This is monumental, a monumental change,” he said.

Schultz said, “Science is something that deserves support, because in the end science will support us and our future.”

Ed Moses, principal associate director of the facility, who led the tour, said that energy security, and the creation of clean energy, is a key component of national security.

But not everyone is enthusiastic about the National Ignition Facility.

The local anti-nuclear group Tri-Valley CAREs has opposed the facility since 1994, believing that it may encourage nuclear proliferation.

Tri-Valley CAREs Executive Director Marylia Kelly says, “The NIF is the most costly element of the Department of Energy’s tockpile Stewardship” program, and is intended to train a new generation of bomb designers and enhance U.S. capability to develop new and modified nuclear weapons.”

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LOS ANGELES, California, October 28, 2008 (ENS) – The famous sports and entertainment venues at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles are about to go solar in a push to advance sustainable energy practices.

Highlighting companies and facilities that are going green, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today installed the last of 1,727 solar panels on the roof of the Staples Center.

“Our landmark global warming law calls for 30 percent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, and projects like these will help us get there while also helping us meet our long-term renewable energy goals,” said the governor.

The 345 kilowatt photovoltaic solar system by Solar Power, Inc. of Roseville, California spans the length of two football fields on the roof of the arena and is the latest green action taken by the Staples management team.

When completed, at least 24,190 square feet of the center’s roof will be covered with a giant array of solar photovoltaic modules generating electricity with zero emissions.

Staples Center serves as home to the L.A. Lakers and L.A. Clippers basketball teams, the L.A. Sparks women’s basketball team, the L.A. Kings ice hockey team, and the L.A. Avengers football team well as hosting special events and concerts.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger stands atop
the Staples Center in a sea of new solar
photovoltaic panels. (Photo courtesy
Office of the Governor)

The 7,000 seat Nokia Theatre directly across the street will also be fitted with solar panels by Solar Power, Inc.

“Our investment to purchase these state-of-the-art solar energy systems for both Staples Center and Nokia Theater L.A. Live, making them the first facilities of their kind to do so at this level, reaffirms our commitment to insuring that our venues are the most environmentally friendly in the industry,” said Lee Zeidman, senior vice president and general manager of the two venues.

Governor Schwarzenegger had another solar stop on his Los Angeles schedule today – he toured the Contessa Manufacturing Plant – the world’s first and largest environmentally responsible, LEED-certified frozen-food manufacturing plant.

The facility, its processes, and the product manufactured there will be known as “Green Cuisine.”

This is the first time the U.S. Green Building Council has awarded LEED certification to a frozen-food manufacturing facility, setting a new industry standard. The LEED rating system is the national standard for the design, construction and operation of green buildings. It recognizes five areas of environmental and human health – sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality and selection of materials.

“Until now, the USGBC has never LEED-certified a frozen-food manufacturing facility,” said John Z. Blazevich, president and chief executive of Contessa. “As a leader in our industry, we didn’t wait for environmental standards to be established. Instead, we collaborated with LEED and decided to raise the bar for the entire industry and to do the right thing for the long-term sustainability of our environment.”

Company officials say they will use advanced design and technology to reduce Contessa’s environmental impact. A water preheating system saves energy by redirecting the heat used in refrigeration coils to the plant’s boilers.

Variable frequency drives adjust the amount of power supplied to motors at specific times or under specific conditions to minimize energy use.

And an innovative loading dock prevents the loss of refrigerated air, reducing temperature fluctuation and energy use.

The new $35 million plant is expected to produce up to 150 million pounds of food products in the first year and at the same time is set to reduce its energy use and emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by 65 percent, according a company statement.

“I am thrilled to be celebrating the commitment of these companies to reducing their carbon footprints,” the governor said. “They are examples that going green is not only good for the environment but also for business.

Schwarzenegger has set a goal of increasing California’s renewable energy sources to 20 percent by 2010, and he supports reaching 33 percent by 2020.

California’s Million Solar Roofs Plan enacted in August 2006 is now renamed as the California Solar Initiative. It offers more than $3 billion in incentives for homeowners and building owners who install solar electric systems.

The plan is intended to encourage the installation of one million solar roofs in California by the year 2017. If accomplished, that goal will provide 3,000 megawatts of additional clean energy and reduce the output of greenhouse gases by more than two million tons.

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BAKERSFIELD, California, October 23, 2008 (ENS) – Turning a long line of mirrors to catch the California sunshine, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today fired up the first solar thermal power plant built in California in nearly 20 years.

The new Kimberlina concentrating solar thermal power plant in Bakersfield was built by Ausra Inc., a large-scale solar thermal energy developer and manufacturer based in Palo Alto.

“This next generation solar power plant is further evidence that reliable, renewable and pollution-free technology is here to stay, and it will lead to more California homes and businesses powered by sunshine,” said Governor Schwarzenegger. “Not only will this large-scale solar facility generate power to help us meet our renewable energy goals, it will also generate new jobs as California continues to pioneer the clean-tech industry.”

Two years ago California passed a requiring a rollback in greenhouse gases to the 1990 level by the year 2020, an emissions reduction of 25 percent. The governor said the Kimberlina solar thermal power plant brings the state closer to achieving this goal.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger tours the Ausra
Kimberlina Solar Energy Facility with Ausra
Chief Executive Officer Bob Fishman.
(Photo by Duncan McIntosh courtesy Office
of the Governor)

The first solar plant in the country to utilize Ausra’s technology, at full output, the Kimberlina solar plant will generate five megawatts of electricity, enough to power 3,500 homes in central California.

Unlike photovoltaic solar panels, which convert the light from the Sun into electricity and are often mounted on rooftops, solar thermal facilities use large fields of mirrors to concentrate and capture the Sun’s heat, converting it into useful forms of energy.

Solar concentrators boil water with focused sunlight, generating high-pressure steam that drives large conventional turbine generators. The process produces clean, reliable electricity and high-temperature steam for industrial applications.

Low-cost thermal energy storage systems now under development by Ausra will allow solar electric power to be generated on demand, day and night.

Ausra’s core technology, the Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector solar collector and steam generation system, was originally conceived in the early 1990s at Sydney University. It was first commercialized by Solar Heat and Power Pty Ltd. in 2004 in Australia and is now being refined and built at large scale by Ausra around the world.

“Behind these striking, 1,000 foot long mirrors is a design philosophy that uses an elegant simplicity to lower costs and accelerate our ability to deliver at large scale and on schedule, making solar power much more of a player in our collective energy future,” said Robert Morgan, executive vice-president and chief development officer for Ausra.

“Kimberlina represents more than an industry milestone,” said Ausra President, CEO and Chairman Bob Fishman. “It represents the best of American and Australian ingenuity and get-it-done attitude. I’m particularly proud of all the Ausra employees who designed and built this plant safely in five months, with zero loss-time accidents and entirely with private capital.”

At the launch event, Pacific Gas & Electric chief executive Peter Darbee warned that the current financial crisis might divert attention from the climate change crisis and pledged that his company would not abandon its efforts to curb global warming.

“We cannot do that,” said Darbee. “Climate change is a very, very serious problem. Unquestionably, we have to deal with the problems of the capital markets, the real estate market, the deficits and economic problems that we’re all going to face during the next two years. But we cannot afford to take our eye off of the ball, the ball which is described by many as the greatest challenge mankind has ever faced.”

“I want to restate our commitment as PG&E, our commitment to the governor, to you all, to Washington, that we will not take our eye off the ball, that we will continue to pursue energy efficiency, we will continue to pursue demand management, we will continue to pursue renewables,” Darbee said.

Recognizing that due to the financial crisis, “high-risk projects aren’t going to get financed in the future and higher-risk projects are going to be much more expensive than low-risk projects,” Darbee pledged, “PG&E stands ready, as we were before, to take on the challenge of financing renewables, to work with people collaboratively to move renewable generation forward.”

Using Ausra’s current solar technologies, company executives say that all U.S. electric power, day and night, could be generated using a land area smaller than 92 square miles.

The Kimberlina facility will serve as the gateway toward developing Ausra’s Carrizo Plains solar power plant in San Luis Obispo.

In November 2007, Ausra and Pacific Gas and Electric Company announced a power purchase agreement for the 177-megawatt power plant. When completed, the Carrizo facility will generate enough electricity to power more than 120,000 homes.

In the 1980s, a concentrating solar thermal demonstration plant was built in Daggett, California that used an array of mirrors to focus the Sun’s energy to a single receiver mounted atop a central tower. It was decommissioned in 1999.

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California’s Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, came to power in his environmentally concerned state in part because he believed that people and the government need to do something about climate change. While Governor Schwarzenegger has committed California to many government programs that advance the cause of a healthier environment, he is also exhorting people to do what they can for the environment in their daily lives. Part of this public outreach is taking place on a new website called EcoDriving USA [www.ecodrivingusa.com].

The website provides advice for car drivers on how they can lower their carbon footprint from their perches on car seats. Educating people on ways to conserve energy are crucial to preventing a climate disaster. Given the slow pace of alternative energy adoption in this country, there are few avenues for average Americans to make a difference than employing conservation strategies in their daily lives.

Check out this resource and see what you can accomplish!

SACRAMENTO, California, September 30, 2008 (ENS) – California will reduce or eliminate hazardous chemicals in consumer products and the environment under legislation signed Monday in Los Angeles by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The two bills enable the state to take more responsibility by 2011 for identifying and regulating dangerous chemicals and for analyzing safer alternatives.

Governor Schwarzenegger said the legislation “will spur a new era of research and innovation and promises to drive economic growth and competition in the green chemistry sector.”

“This bi-partisan package of environmental legislation propels California to the forefront of the nation and the world with the most comprehensive green chemistry program ever established,” the governor said.

“It also puts an end to the less effective ‘chemical-by-chemical’ bans of the past,” he said. “With these two bills, we will stop looking at toxics as an inevitable byproduct of industrial production. Instead they will be something that can be removed from every product in the design stage – protecting people’s health and our environment.”

The legislation is a response to growing concerns raised by scientists and public health advocates about unsafe and untested chemicals in consumer products.

While many consumer products include harmful substances, from lead-tainted toys to linens with toxic flame retardants, there is currently no state agency that has broad-based authority to take these products off the shelves or spur the development of safer alternatives.

The governor signed AB 1879 by Assemblymember Mike Feuer, a Los Angeles Democrat, and SB 509 by Senator Joe Simitian, a Palo Alto Democrat. Each legislator also co-authored the other’s companion measure, and they both worked with Republican lawmakers to craft the bills.

From left: Assemblymember Mike Feuer,
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and
Senator Joe Simitian at the bill signing
news conference. September 29, 2008
(Photo courtesy Office of the Governor)

Assemblymember Feuer said, “Instead of putting partisan politics first, we’re putting peoples’ health first.”

AB 1879 establishes authority for the state Department of Toxic Substances Control to develop regulations that create a process for identifying and prioritizing chemicals of concern and to create methods for analyzing alternatives. It allows DTSC to impose “restrictions or bans” on chemicals of concern.

The bill establishes a Green Ribbon Science Panel made up of experts to provide advice on scientific matters, chemical policy recommendations and implementation strategies, and to ensure implementation efforts are based on science.

It expands the role of the Environmental Policy Council, made up of the heads of all California Environmental Protection Agency boards and departments, to oversee implementation of the green chemistry program.

SB 509 creates an online Toxics Information Clearinghouse, a database to increase consumer knowledge about the toxicity and hazards of thousands of chemicals used in California every day.

“Californians currently have little if any access to information about the many thousands of chemicals that are commonly used in their products, released into the environment, or present at their workplaces,” said Senator Simitian. “The governor’s signature on SB 509 represents a significant breakthrough in the ultimate goal of protecting people from exposure to harmful products.”

Simitian chairs the Senate Environmental Quality Committee which held hearings in 2006 to discuss the findings of a report by the University of California’s California Policy Research Center entitled “Green Chemistry in California: A Framework for Leadership in Chemicals Policy and Innovation.” The report revealed that on any given day, the United States produces or imports 42 billon pounds of chemicals that may cause problems for human health and the environment.

The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission
recalled this toy boat today for
excessively high levels of lead.
(Photo courtesy CPSC)

The Chemical Industry Council of California is supportive of the new legislation, endorsing the comments of attorneys Todd Maiden and Eric McLaughlin of the council’s affiliate member, the law firm of ReedSmith.

“The most prominent features of California’s green chemistry law are its foundation on science and real-life assessment of chemical usage and exposure risk,” write Maiden and McLaughlin.

“Like all new regulations, those promulgated under the Green Chemistry law will impose operational changes and up-front compliance costs on the regulated community. However, change also presents new opportunity,” they write. “Compliance with California’s green chemistry law will likely reduce the costs of proper hazardous waste management and disposal, and satisfaction of workplace safety and health requirements. New opportunities to market products and processes as eco-friendly will also arise.”

Sierra Club California Director Bill Magavern helped to shape the legislation and he was present at the signing ceremony. He asserted Sierra Club’s position that, “Californians should be able to buy products for our households without having to worry that we’re bringing home hazardous substances that could harm our families.”

“We worked hard all year long with Mr. Feuer and our allies at Breast Cancer Fund, California League of Conservation Voters and Environment California to craft this landmark legislation,” Magavern said.

“These legislative measures are the beginning of a much-needed overhaul of the state’s broken chemicals management system,” said Jeanne Rizzo, R.N., president of the Breast Cancer Fund. “With the signing of these bills, our state is taking a historic step toward reducing Californians’ exposure to toxic chemicals.”

Advocates say they are committed to working with the governor over the coming months to implement the legislation. But they also urge the Schwarzenegger to release his Green Chemistry Initiative recommendations, which are expected to include a more comprehensive plan for chemical policy reform and the search for safer, less toxic chemicals.

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HOLLYWOOD, California, August 14, 2008 (ENS) – At the opening of the annual U.S.-Mexico Border Governors Conference Thursday at Universal Studios in Hollywood, host California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said he felt right at home.

“I actually started my movie career right here at Universal Studios,” he told his nine fellow governors. “It was Universal Studios that started the Conan the Barbarian movie.” The 1982 movie is recognized as the acting breakthrough of then bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger, an Austrian immigrant.

As host of the Border Governors Conference, Schwarzenegger used his keynote speech to expound on the theme of this year’s conference, Building Green Economies.

To help fight global warming, he pointed out, the Mexican border states have joined the Western Climate Initiative. They hold status as observers and so are not bound by the goal set by the WCI in August 2007 for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in its 11 member states in the west and in Canadian provinces that now extend as far east as Quebec.

In Hollywood today, Mexico’s top environmental official Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada, who heads the Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources, proposed the creation of state climate change plans to deal with the environmental impacts of global warming in a coordinated way.

He said the environmental agreement that Mexico signed recently with the state of California could be applied all along the border strip.

It would include greenhouse gas emissions inventories at the local, state and regional levels, and, said the Mexican secretary, the states south of the border could adopt California’s low-carbon air quality standard.

In addition, he suggested the establishment of 15 crossborder pollution control districts and also proposed building desalination plants in coastal areas to ensure drinking water supplies for the arid region.

Polluted stream rimmed with piles of
discarded tires at a border town
near San Diego. (Photo courtesy
San Diego Indymedia)

The California governor praised his colleagues for their work with the federal governments to tackle the problem of millions of abandoned scrap tires that pose a public health and environmental risk, “and we have begun discussions on managing water resources during drought conditions,” said Schwarzenegger.

“You see, these are important breakthroughs and they build on our history of friendship and accomplishment,” he said.

The 10 border states – Arizona, Baja California, California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, New Mexico, Sonora, Tamaulipas, and Texas – together exercise an economy that ranks third in the world for size.

Schwarzenegger praised his fellow governors for helping to create the Border 2012 program, a collaboration between the United States and Mexico to improve the environment and protect the health of the nearly 12 million people living along the border.

The bi-national program focuses on emergency preparedness, cleaning the air, providing safe drinking water, reducing the risk of exposure to hazardous waste, and addressing environmental health issues such as farm workers’ exposure to pesticides.

The conference ends Friday, but cooperation will continue. The United States and Mexico have been cooperating on a broad range of environmental issues since 1983.

“Now, our work is complicated, it’s never-ending and it requires constant coordination and collaboration,” said Swarzenegger. “But this organization has shown time and time again that it is ready to rise to any challenge.”

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SACRAMENTO, California, July 29, 2008 (ENS) – The governors of California, Oregon and Washington Tuesday announced the details of their plan to address ocean and coastal management issues such as polluted runoff, oil spills and marine garbage along the West Coast.

The West Coast Governors’ Ocean Action Plan is the result of a 2006 agreement signed by the three governors that established a long-term partnership to tackle obstacles facing the Pacific Ocean and its coastal communities.

The three states will work together on 26 actions. They promised to advocate for stricter ocean going vessel emission standards, prevent the introduction of invasive species, explore the feasibility of offshore alternative ocean energy development, improve ocean research, increase ocean education and prevent and respond to offshore oil spills, among other efforts.

Each action within the plan contains benchmarks and a timeframe for action. The governors have formally committed to report on the status of actions at the end of two years.

“This agreement is another key step in our aggressive efforts to maintain clean water and beaches along our coast,” said Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, speaking with his fellow governors via satellite.

“I believe our commitment to working together and putting this plan into action will help effectively tackle critical issues up and down the West Coast,” he said, “ensuring a healthy ocean environment for current and future generations.”

An endangered marine turtle is entangled
in a ghost fishing net. (Photo courtesy
NOAA)

Governor Ted Kulongoski of Oregon views the effort as another successful regional compact. “Just as we’ve seen with the Western Regional Climate Action Initiative, collaboration on complex natural resource issues leads to improved management, inspires innovation and ensures a healthier environment. Together, we can sustain our marine resources and the communities that depend upon them.”

“While Washington is making significant strides with state initiatives such as the Puget Sound Partnership, the crisis facing salmon this year is an example of why we must address these issues together as a region,” said Governor Christine Gregoire of Washington. “Our waters know no boundaries.”

“This plan commits us to combining our resources and ideas, and prioritizes restoring and maintaining the health of our marine and coastal waters to ensure a sustainable future,” she said.

California, Oregon and Washington have worked closely with key federal agencies as well as ocean users, academic institutions, the public, tribes, and other state and regional entities to develop the plan and will continue to collaborate with these groups to accomplish the tasks identified in the plan.

The three governors sent a joint letter to Congress asking for $5 million in federal support for implementation of the action plan. Congress has provided funding and support for similar regional ocean initiatives, such as the Gulf of Mexico Alliance.

To support the states’ agreement, a Federal Working Group, co-led by the U.S. Department of Interior, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has been established and will work with the states in implementing the actions.

The action plan commits the three states to collaborate with each other and federal partners on seven priority areas related to ocean protection:

* Ensuring clean coastal waters and beaches;
* Protecting and restoring healthy ocean and coastal habitats;
* Promoting the effective implementation of ecosystem-based management of our ocean and coastal resources;
* Reducing adverse impacts of offshore development;
* Increasing ocean awareness and literacy among our citizens;
* Expanding ocean and coastal scientific information, research and monitoring; and
* Fostering sustainable economic development throughout our diverse coastal communities.

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