California campaigner spreading carbon-cap gospel to other states
Terry Tamminen is restyling himself as the “Johnny Appleseed” of carbon caps. Formerly environmental adviser and cabinet secretary for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), he’s now working to spread California’s climate policy to other states, and eventually, he hopes, to the country as a whole. First he’ll focus on getting southwestern states to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions — Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas (good luck!), then other Western states and the Northeast. Arizona is already receptive; its governor, Janet Napolitano (D), signed an executive order two weeks ago that calls for the state to seek ways to cut GHG emissions to 2000 levels by 2020, then 50 percent below 2000 levels by 2040. “We can create over the next few years a de facto national policy on climate change and we don’t have to wait for the federal government,” said Tamminen. “I don’t know if next year President Bush will have a change of heart … but we just can’t wait.”
