Eco-failure for Governator Arnie?
Updated on 06 September 2007
California may not, after all, meet Governor Schwarzenegger's carbon emission targets.
He has been called the John the Baptist of global warming.
Across the world Arnold Schwarzenegger is feted for his efforts to cut carbon emissions as governor of California. He will even give a keynote address to the Tory party conference via videolink later this month.
But emissions in California are actually rising. Experts say the state is unlikely to fully meet its ambitious targets to reduce them.
Meanwhile Mr Schwarzenegger is under attack from his own party, and the state's plans to curb emissions are being challenged in court.
Califionia's carbon emissions are on the increase. More cars than ever clog the freeways.
What Schwarzenegger hasn't explained is how California's ambitious environmental cuts will be met - or at what cost.
But the man they call their "goverator" has written ambitious environmental cuts into state law.
What he hasn't done is explain how they will be met - or at what cost to the lifestyle Californians value far more than any eco credentials.
Arnie's problem is places like the fast-growing towns in California's central valley, where Americans come to live out their dream. But it's an enviromental nightmare.
Over 1.5 million people a year are moving inland, where it is much hotter, which means more air conditioning. Every resident here uses twice as much electricity as someone who lives near the ocean.
And, of course, it is impossible to get anywhere without a car - or even a very large truck.
That is why California may not meet its target to cut emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, and to 80 per cent below that by 2050.
Arnie will have left office by the time the legislation starts to hurt.
Arnie has successfully cast himself as global eco-warrior after scripting these targets. But he's yet to tell Californians exactly what part they have to play.
Many Californians are very proud of their supposed "eco-state". But even a zero emissions taxi can't take you more than a couple of blocks. The legislation that sets legally enforceable limits on greenhouse gas emissions conspicuously doesn't say how they will be met.
And the man who was in charge of implementing them was fired by the governor's office after disagreements about how to get there.
All of the climate change programmes are to be in place by 2010, but the impact will not be felt until the following decade. So by the time the governor completes his term, all the rules should be there - but the reductions will not yet have occurred. So Arnie will have left office by the time it starts to hurt
The "golden state" is meant to be generating one fifth of its electricity from renewables like windpower by 2010. This is the first target they seem bound to miss, as they are only about halfway there.
California has done more than any other state to make America think about climate change. It wants to show the country how the problem can be solved. But if it fails, it will have set a potentially disastrous example.
