NEWS

WIRES

OTHER

Schwarzenegger Applauds Obama Commitment to Move on Car Emissions Waiver

SECRETARY ADAMS:

Good afternoon, everyone. Before I introduce the Governor I'd like to quickly introduce some of the people on stage with us today. Of course, we're very happy to have the author of AB 1493, Senator Fran Pavley, with us today. We have Bernadette Del Chiaro with Environment California - thank you, Bernadette - James Goldstein, executive officer of the California Air Resources Board. And Chairman Nichols apologizes that she was not able to be here; she had a speaking engagement in southern California today. And we have Annie Notthoff with NRDC, Tim Carmichael - is Tim here? Hi, Tim - with Coalition for Clean Air, Bill Magavern with the Sierra Club, John White - is John here? Oh, okay - Derek Walker, Environmental Defense, Carl Zichella with the Sierra Club and several volunteers with Environment California.

And now, without further ado, I would like to introduce our champion in the fight for clean cars and the fight against global warming, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Thank you.

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER:

Thank you, Linda. Thank you very much. I also want to say thank you to Linda Adams - what a terrific Secretary of the EPA - and also Senator Fran Pavley, thank you so much for being here today. And Bernadette Del Chiaro, I want to thank her also for the great work she is doing.

Today I got great news from Washington. President Obama ordered his Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider California's request to set our own tailpipe emission standards and to complete its review.

The President's action is a great victory for California and also for clean air around the nation and for generations to come. This morning I spoke with Carol Browner, who is the President's Advisor on Climate Change and I'm confident that when the EPA completes its review California and a host of other states can finally move forward when it comes to tailpipe emissions. Soon millions of Americans will breathe easier and enjoy more efficient cars. In fact, our law will be an equivalent of taking 6.5 million cars off the road and that's, of course, very important because cars create 25 percent of the greenhouse gases.

Of course, this has been a long and difficult struggle. It started in 2001 when then-Assemblywoman Fran Pavley worked on this and authored this bill. It was then signed by Governor Davis in 2002. Then it went on like this until the Air Board then adopted it in 2004. And in 2005 we then requested a waiver from the federal government and of course the idea was that, with AB 1493, that we cut down our greenhouse gas emissions by 22 percent by the year 2012 and then by 30 percent in 2016. So we met a lot of obstacles, of course, over the years. This is now eight years since we have been struggling with this subject here.

Senator Pavley, of course, has been tireless, a great advocate and just a terrific environmentalist. You know, I have been praising her up and down the state and around the country because of all the great work that she has done. She has really been responsible for this bill and so I just want to say again thank you very much for the great work that you have done. What a tremendous legislator she is - talking about someone that really gets things done and has the endurance and the staying power.

Now, the automobile industry fought this tooth and nail and for years Washington blocked us from implementing this. But we never gave up. California always has continued fighting to move things forward. We encouraged other states, as a matter of fact, to join us in this fight and 15 other states did join us. We continued to meet and to work with federal officials.

As a matter of fact, we just talked before we came in here, Fran and I, about how we were sitting at the Environmental Protection Agency with Secretary Johnson and we had a one-hour meeting and asked him to give us the waiver. And, you know, he was very negative and we didn't have much hope, so I eventually turned the conversation to the Senator and said, "You tell him why this is so important." (Laughter) And I knew that she would lay it on him and she did. (Laughter) The guy almost fell off his chair. (Laughter) But anyway, it was really terrific to have her there and to speak with this kind of an authority and with this kind of passion.

But when we faced no alternative, we sued the federal government and let them know that we would not stop until we prevailed. And so we had great help, of course, from Attorney General Jerry Brown and we want to also say thank you to him and congratulate him for the great work that he has done in helping with that.

Now, all of these years of hard work and determination, of course, paid off. For too long Washington has been asleep at the wheel when it comes to the environment. Now California finally has a partner and an ally in Washington, at the White House.

And let me again be clear; this has absolutely nothing to do in punishing the automakers. As a matter of fact, what we wanted to do is just give them a little push to be innovative and to develop new techniques that will ultimately make better cars that will be more competitive around the world. It is about the child's right to breathe clean air, it's about saving drivers money at the gas pump and it's about reducing our nation's dependence on foreign oil.

So, for the people of California and the rest of the nation, I'm thrilled that President Obama has created really great action here today and I'm proud of California's continued leadership in the fight for clean air and for a healthy environment and the economy.

And I have to say also that I'm very proud of this state because, when I spoke today to Carol Browner, who is the President's Advisor on Climate Change, she made it very clear that none of this would have happened if it wouldn't have been for California and California's leadership, so I'm very proud of that.

So again, thank you very much to Senator Fran Pavley for this work and now I would like to bring her out to say a few words about that. Please.

SENATOR PAVLEY:

Good afternoon, everyone. It's a pleasure for me to be here. You know, this bill was introduced back in January of 2001, eight years ago this month. And what a difference one week makes in Washington DC; we were hoping this day would come.

Now, the President is just asking the EPA to re-evaluate the granting of this waiver. I feel very confident that we will receive this waiver. We've met the compelling and extraordinary criteria set forth under the Federal Clean Air Act. And this bill was written, actually, with the help, through the regulatory process, of some topnotch engineers, experts in automotive efficiencies and technologies, who adopted these regulations, looking at off-the-shelf, feasible regulatory possibilities, flexibility in packages through all classes of vehicles where we know that the automobile manufacturers can meet these targets, the mid-term targets as well as the 2016 targets of a 30 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Why California? Well, you know, under the Federal Clean Air Act we can pass more stringent tailpipe emission standards than the federal government. And the good news is other states have the ability to adopt California's standards or the less stringent federal government standards.

And when we had this discussion with the automobile manufacturers back in 2001 and 2002, they said California by itself doesn't make any sense. This will be a patchwork quilt of regulations, it'll be California's standards and then the federal government will have other standards.

Well, as of today, minimally 13 other states have either adopted, or indicate they will adopt, California's clean car standards and we have on good authority that four other states are poised to do that. We have reached a tipping point where 50 percent of all new vehicles sold will have to meet these cleaner, more efficient car standards. What a possibility this is for the American automobile manufacturers, to get in the forefront of manufacturing these clean cars for tomorrow to sell not only across our country but to other parts of the world.

An exciting day for California and I want to thank Governor Schwarzenegger for his support. Who knew when one governor went out of office and a new governor came into office, there would be consistent and total support. He's been a great partner in this endeavor.

And I do remember that wonderful meeting with Steven Johnson. He was very evasive and I thought, uh-oh, this is going to be more political than substantive, based on the criteria set forth in the Clean Air Act and achieving this waiver. And as far as I know, this was the first waiver ever denied to California by the Environmental Protection Agency. Thank you very much.

BERNADETTE DEL CHIARO:

Thank you. My name is Bernadette Del Chiaro; I'm the Clean Energy Advocate with Environment California. We're here, obviously, to applaud the action of President Obama. But before I do that, I want to first thank Senator Pavley. It was your vision, foresight and wisdom that put this policy forward back when there were even some doubts in a lot of people's minds that global warming existed back in 2002, believe it or not. We would not be here today, we would not have AB 32, California's Global Warming Emissions Cap, were it not for your leadership, Senator and thank you so much for that.

And also, I think not enough can be said, Governor, for your leadership and unwavering support for global warming solutions, clean energy solutions here in California and leading the country and showing the country that protecting the environment and protecting the economy go hand-in-hand. From the Million Solar Roofs Initiative to the signing of AB 32 and dozens of other initiatives, we would not be able to put those forward without your support.

Senator, you mentioned what a difference a week makes. From my perspective, what a difference an election makes. For the past eight years America's engine for ingenuity and progress on the environment has been stuck in reverse under the Bush administration.

Today President Obama has taken America from 0-60 in six days. We welcome this kind of action. This is something that indicates what the President has promised, which is that science, not special interests, are once again in the driver's seat in America. That has been the case here in California. We have led the country on clean energy initiatives, from the catalytic converter to hybrid electric vehicles and this is once again our ability to move forward on clean energy solutions and global warming solutions.

I also want to thank the other environmental organizations here on the stage today, as well as hundreds of others around the country. Again, we talk about California's leadership but today really marks what that leadership truly means. When California is given this waiver and we adopt standards, other states follow. Almost 50 percent of California's auto market is covered by these standards now. The Senator mentioned that we have 13 states plus Washington D.C. Other states in the wings are significant in population - Illinois, Florida.

These standards are sweeping the country and we hope that soon the President will actually follow through with this waiver, follow up on this waiver with creating a national standard with the California Greenhouse Gas Emission Standards for all cars across the country.

This is good for our economy. It's quite frankly good for the auto manufacturers to make this change. A lot of people are wondering, is this is the right time to be putting these standards on a struggling industry? My answer to that is absolutely, this is the perfect time. For far too long Detroit has been stalling out on providing the cars and the technology that Americans want. We know that these cars, cars that comply with these standards, will save California drivers approximately $30 at the pump each month. Those are the kind of savings, the money back in consumer pockets, that we need right now.

So, Governor, I think the President is taking a page out of your playbook. Again, moving forward on the environment and moving forward on the economy go hand in hand. And we applaud the President's action, we applaud the action of our leaders here in California and thank you very much for the opportunity to be here today.

SECRETARY ADAMS:

Thank you very much, Bernadette and Senator and Governor. I just want to add a few things before we open for questions and answers. One is that we believe that California has a very strong case and we trust that the U.S. EPA will grant us consideration in short order.

And putting clean cars on the road is hugely important to meeting the environmental goals set by the Governor, since 40 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions come from the transportation sector. So this standard alone, the 1493 standard, will get us nearly 20 percent of the reductions needed to meet our goals in AB 32, so this is hugely important for California and the rest of the nation. Thank you and I guess questions.

QUESTION/ANSWER:

GOVERNOR: Thank you. Let me just again also quickly mention, I want to say thank you to everyone that is standing behind me here, because each and every one of these people had participated in getting this done. It never is one person and so I just want to say thank you to all of you for having faith in that bill and fighting all jointly together and making this great bill of Fran Pavley, our great senator, become a reality. So thank you very much. Thank you. Yes?

QUESTION: Governor, last week Mary Nichols wrote a letter to the EPA saying she believed that once this process was reopened it could be done on a very expedited basis addressing only some narrow issues that had raised by Mr. Johnson. In your conversations with Carol Browner today, did she give any indication as to whether she agrees with Ms. Nichol's assessment?

GOVERNOR: First of all, we didn't get into those kind of details, what has been done in the past and what will be done now. I think the phone call was much more about we have great news. There was a promise made to the people of America by President Obama and the promise is being kept, that we have just instructed the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington to move forward with the waiver and to complete all the work and that we want to get this done and we want you and the other states to have this waiver.

And I then told them that it would be great to actually do this nationwide so that the car manufacturers don't have two standards but they only have one, because I think it's a wise policy. I think it's a terrific bill and I think that the federal government will adopt a lot of the ideas that we have passed here in as far as environmental laws and other things. We have always been the laboratory for the federal government, so I think that they will look at it very closely and seriously, to maybe do it nationwide.

QUESTION: Governor, could you give us a quick budget update, just let us know how things are going in your Big Five talks?

GOVERNOR: Well, these are long and tedious conversations and negotiations, because it's not just talking about the numbers but it's also talking a budget. And then, as I was explaining earlier, the four-legged stool, to talk about the cuts that are necessary, to talk about the revenue increases that are necessary and also to talk about the economic stimulus package. And how to make government more efficient, because I'm a strong believer that we cannot go to the people and ask them to make the sacrifices but government doesn't do anything and make the sacrifices also. So we are trying to kind of consolidate certain departments, get rid of some of the boards and commissions and so on.

So we have a lot of different - there are a lot of different conversations that are going on, on all those different levels. And obviously I cannot give you the details of those conversations, because as I said, it's very sensitive, because the legislative leaders are talking about things that they probably never dreamt of talking about and trying to go in areas that they never thought of doing that. And so, therefore, I don't want to get into the details.

But the important thing is the conversations are good conversations. Sometimes they get kind of - you know, very blunt and frank. But I think that everyone knows that this needs to be done and everyone is shooting for the same goal, which is not to do it in steps but to take care of the whole $42 billion deficit in one shot.

We have talked about many times that we have a problem that our budgets are always late. I think it could very well be that it will be the first time in history that a budget will be five months early, because we are working on the whole 18-month package.

QUESTION: Do you have any predictions as to when you might conclude all this?

GOVERNOR: Well, I think that we are trying to. Everyone knows what the deadline is, which is the end of this month.

QUESTION: Tell us what it is, we'd like to know too.

GOVERNOR: I think that you know. I think that you know that we are running out of money and I think the Controller has talked about that, within the next week or 10 days. So I think that everyone is kind of, with that in mind, aiming for having something passed by that time.

QUESTION: Are you factoring in the stimulus program that they're working on in the House? You know, they're talking about $22 billion of total money coming to California. Not all of that would go into the budget. Are you guys planning on that as part of the solution?

GOVERNOR: We are not planning on - there are some people and there are certain monies, I think, that some of them are planning on. But I, first of all, I'm a big believer that we should create our own economic stimulus package and we should create the infrastructure package separately and then whatever comes from the federal government we should have the projects ready to go. And that's what I sold in Philadelphia when I was back there, to let them know that we are ready to go to work literally within a few months on $28 billion worth of projects. And we have actually increased that amount since then, so we can put both of those together.

But the key thing here is not to let anyone fool themselves by thinking that the federal government should bail out California or, as far as that goes, that the federal government should bail out any state, because I think that the most important thing is for states to correct their problems and the mistakes that were made. As you know, half of the problem that we have without budget is because of the nationwide and the worldwide recession and the economic crisis, the financial crisis that we have. But the other half is self-inflicted wounds. It's because we haven't had a rainy day fund. It's because we did spend more money than we have taken in, consistently. So I think that we have to correct those problems and really live within our means and when we have taken care of that, then we can go to the federal government and say okay, we would like to work together with you on health care and those other issues.

QUESTION: But some of that money will come straight into the budget. The education money, Medi-Cal money, would come straight into the budget. When you're talking about a global solution here of $42 billion, there are estimates that as much as a third of that deficit could be offset by the plan being put together in the Congress right now in terms of Medi-Cal money and education money and so forth. Are you counting that?

GOVERNOR: You only can set off anything if you know that you get it permanently, because otherwise it has no effect on the structural deficit. And so we don't want to take money and say okay, we get this year the money and maybe next year and from then, boom, it drops off. So we don't want to count on that. We want to work with the federal government anyway, when it comes to health care. And yes, we will take that money and yes, we will ask for money when it comes to the incarceration of undocumented immigrants and all of those things where we feel like we don't get enough money from the federal government. Yes, we want to always continue working on that, trying to get more money. But we don't want to have the federal government fix our problem. We have to fix our problem ourselves. That is the key thing. Say again, please?

QUESTION: Do you think at this point we can avoid IOUs? What's your assessment?

GOVERNOR: I think that it could very well be that if we don't get the budget done that we have to send out IOUs. I think it is very important right now that everyone is working together, Democrats and Republicans and especially the constitutional officers and not to look at this as a political way of getting around it, or just because someone is running for governor. I think it's important that we all are in sync here. This is where we all have to be on the same team and all march in the same direction and I think it is very important that we continue to stay focused on that.

And I think we are getting closer and closer. That's what you should know. We're getting closer and closer to solving this problem and to solve our budget. We are getting there but it just still will take a few more days to get there. But I just want to say that the legislative leaders have done a great job so far.

QUESTION: Back on this subject, if we could? Back on this subject, if we could, please?

GOVERNOR: What subject?

QUESTION: You're celebrating 1493 and Mr. Obama's comments and by extension 32. However, in the budget talks there's a lot of discussion and pressure among Republicans to roll back 32 and roll back 1493. What are you telling them? What do you tell us about how you're going to stand on 1493 and 32 and the ultimate implementation?

GOVERNOR: As I said, I don't want to get into any of the details of our budget discussions, because it could blow up everything. So therefore I will be sensitive about that, because we promised each other always, which is something that we do when we start our Big Five meetings, let's keep this, all the ideas, no matter how radical they are - because sometimes very radical things are being thrown around - so it should stay in our Cabinet Room. So that's the idea. But we are discussing all of those things.

The important thing also that you need to know is - I can give you an overall statement about that and that is we do not want to harm the environment, we want to always protect the environment. So when we at all talk about speeding up projects, we try to work with the environmentalists so that we go and get the regulations and get the permitting process and the studies and all of those kind of things, just speed up. We don't ever want to eliminate anything, because we must always be sensitive to the environment.

So it's all about just speeding it up and putting shovel in to the ground and getting people to work, because every billion dollars that we spend out there on infrastructure creates 18,000 to 25,000 jobs. And every single person that is unemployed right now, I feel sorry for them, I feel bad about it and I want to get them to work as quickly as possible. Thank you very much. Thank you.