It’s no secret California Attorney General Jerry Brown wants to return to the governor’s office he held from 1975 to 1983. But for a guy whose family name is synonymous with “Democrat†and is viewed nationally as a beyond-liberal lefty (far from it), it’s interesting that on the environment he’s staking out the same turf as Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Arnold’s signature issue, of course, is global warming, but the man once known as Gov. Moonbeam is working hard to steal the spotlight. In the space of a month, Brown filed suit against the Bush Administration for its delay in deciding whether California can set its own standards for greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles; petitioned the EPA to regulate GHG emissions from airplanes; and struck a deal to reduce GHG emissions from ships, trucks and trains at the Port of Los Angeles.
A look at Brown's press releases, speeches and articles since he took office last January shows dozens of items about global warming, compared to just a couple on other environmental issues. The AG's website now has its own global warming section. Earlier this year, when Republicans in the Legislature (who have no enthusiasm for Arnold's green agenda) tried to freeze Brown's budget to keep him from going after U.S. auto makers, The Sacramento Bee's "Hot House" blogger, Stuart Leavenworth, observed:
Dang, if the Republicans keep casting him as such a crusader against global warming (which most California voters are highly worried about) he might even have the juice to retake his old job. . . . I tell ya, the guy is running for governor. My only question is, if he gets elected again, will he recycle his old Capitol portrait? Or get a new one?
These are all good things that Brown's doing, and in keeping with the state’s international bellwether role on climate change. And it’s not such a surprise that that Brown would take on global warming, since three decades ago he was an early champion of renewable energy. Still, it’s a marked shift from former AG Bill Lockyer’s focus on toxins in food and consumer products. Under Lockyer, the attorney general's office went after lead in lunchboxes and imported Mexican candy, mercury in seafood, contaminants in vended water, and many more.
AG insiders say there’s a lot less enthusiasm now to go after bad-actor corporations, and a lot more on identifying issues that will generate Brown vs. Bush headlines. Legislators are also trying to out-green the governor, although many lawmakers' focus is on tougher chemical regulations. But Schwarzenegger's outflanking them there also, with his "Green Chemistry" initiative.
To which we say: Cool. It's easy to view politicians' agendas with a cynical eye. But looking back just a decade to the Wilson administration we never thought we'd see the day when a Democratic attorney general and Democrat-controlled Legislature were trying to out-green a Republican governor. That's real progress.
Image: California State Library