Governor Schwarzenegger Discusses Environmental Actions and Need For National Energy Policy in Weekly Radio Address

Statement

Hello, this is Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger with another California Report.

This week, we had some exciting environmental action up and down our state.

First, on Monday and Tuesday, I hosted my third-annual Governors' Global Climate Summit at UC Davis.

This Summit is all about harnessing the power of subnational governments to push
environmental change.

Now why subnational governments?

Because many national governments have not yet come to a
global agreement.

So we feel strongly that we should create a groundswell, because all great movements start at the grassroots level and then slowly get up to the federal government.

We welcomed more than 1,500 people from 90 states, provinces and regions.

We signed agreements pledging to work together on forestry protection, on renewable energy, on protecting water supplies and the list goes on.

And then on Friday, I was at the Los Angeles Car Show.

That car show is one of the biggest in the world, with almost 1,000 cars.

When I first attended as Governor in 2003, that show had two alternative-fuel vehicles.

That was the beginning.
But this year they have more than 50 alternative-fuel vehicles.

Think about that progress.

And of course, all this comes just a few weeks after the people of California overwhelmingly voted down Proposition 23, an initiative to undo our environmental laws and leadership.

We won by 22 percent.

While our federal government is sitting on its hands, California is moving full-speed ahead toward a clean energy future.

We are creating a consistent, long-term energy policy, something that has eluded Washington for decades.

In fact, Washington should take a lesson from what is happening right here in California.

Take Proposition 23.

We all know California is a Democratic state.

But we appealed to voters across the political spectrum.

We never talked about Democrats versus Republicans, liberals versus conservatives, none of that.

We focused not only on climate change but also on jobs, on national security, on public health. Because those are the things we have in common.

There are people who may not believe in global warming.

But everyone, regardless of party, wants to breathe clean air and drink clean water.

Everyone wants to cut their utility bills by being more energy-efficient.

Everyone believes in energy independence.

Let's be honest.

Sending $1 billion a day overseas for imported oil to countries and dictators that hate us, I call this insane.

We must shift the energy and environmental debate nationally.

See, they always just talk about global climate change. But it is about much more than that.

They should do what we did in California by not getting stuck on the one thing we may disagree on.

Rather, let's talk about everything that we do agree on.

And that is how we can get Washington and the American people, Democrats and Republicans and independents and decline-to-state, behind the clean-energy movement.

We need a national energy policy, and we need a national environmental policy.

It is absolutely essential.

We can't keep going like this any longer.

Thank you for watching, and thank you for listening.

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